The odds of a big planet X have dropped recently due to the pulsar timing discovery of a gravitational wave background. This meant knowing the position of the Solar System barycentre to within a few 100 metres, and this puts very strong constraints on the mass of any additional planet.
I'll ask around and see if I can quantify this better.
--- Tony
Wouldn't a planet 10 exert less influence than that?
No. The "Planet 9" (remember, the guy who killed Pluto is the same guy who thinks there's a bigger Planet 9 out there) is supposed to be like 460AU and 6.3 times the mass of the Earth. That would put the barycenter of the solar system about 32000km offset from where it is now.
So...
So...it could be a ring of material rather than a planet. Remember, the original analysis had no way to distinguish between them.
The odds of a big planet X have dropped recently due to the pulsar timing discovery of a gravitational wave background. This meant knowing the position of the Solar System barycentre to within a few 100 metres, and this puts very strong constraints on the mass of any additional planet.
I'll ask around and see if I can quantify this better.
--- Tony
Wouldn't a planet 10 exert less influence than that?
No. The "Planet 9" (remember, the guy who killed Pluto is the same guy who thinks there's a bigger Planet 9 out there) is supposed to be like 460AU and 6.3 times the mass of the Earth. That would put the barycenter of the solar system about 32000km offset from where it is now.
So...
So in other words there is no ninth planet. And Alan Stern gets the last laugh over Mike Brown then.
The odds of a big planet X have dropped recently due to the pulsar timing discovery of a gravitational wave background. This meant knowing the position of the Solar System barycentre to within a few 100 metres, and this puts very strong constraints on the mass of any additional planet.
I'll ask around and see if I can quantify this better.
--- Tony
Wouldn't a planet 10 exert less influence than that?
No. The "Planet 9" (remember, the guy who killed Pluto is the same guy who thinks there's a bigger Planet 9 out there) is supposed to be like 460AU and 6.3 times the mass of the Earth. That would put the barycenter of the solar system about 32000km offset from where it is now.
So...
But such far away plane takes thousands of years. So the question is how much the barycenter would shift during the pulsar timing observation.