Astronomers May Have Just Found the First Real Clue to Planet Nine! – The Daily Galaxy
2025-04-28T15:00:00Z
A mysterious slow-moving object spotted deep in space could finally be the first real hint of the elusive Planet Nine.
The search for a hidden giant lurking in the far reaches of the Solar System has captivated astronomers for decades. A new study, published by Terry Long Phan and colleagues in Cambridge University Press and available on arXiv, brings new momentum to this cosmic quest. Using far-infrared data from the IRAS and AKARI all-sky surveys, the research team may have identified a promising candidate that fits the elusive profile of the long-theorized Planet Nine.
The Mysterious Pull Beyond Neptune
Our Solar System, a sprawling collection of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets bound together by the Sun’s gravity, has long been thought to hold hidden secrets beyond Neptune. Planet Nine’s existence was first proposed in 2016 by astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown after they noticed unusual orbital clustering among several trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). These distant objects seem to be influenced by the gravitational tug of an unseen massive body—one much larger than Earth and positioned far beyond Pluto’s orbit.
Despite years of extensive searches using some of the world’s most powerful telescopes, Planet Nine has remained purely theoretical. Direct observation has proven elusive, and the mystery has only deepened as astronomers fine-tuned models predicting where and how the planet might be detected.
A New Strategy Using Infrared Surveys
In the recent study, the research team took an innovative approach by leveraging the 23-year gap between the IRAS and AKARI infrared all-sky surveys. This large time separation allowed them to search for slow-moving objects expected to drift approximately 3 arcminutes per year — a signature movement anticipated for a distant planet of significant mass.
The key to their success was the use of the AKARI Far-Infrared Monthly Unconfirmed Source List (AKARI-MUSL), a specialized catalog designed for identifying faint, moving sources, rather than relying on the standard bright source catalog. Researchers carefully estimated Planet Nine’s expected brightness and motion based on models assuming a mass between 7 and 17 Earth masses and distances ranging from 500 to 700 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun.
By applying precise positional and flux criteria to cross-match sources between the two surveys, the team initially identified 13 candidate pairs exhibiting separations consistent with Planet Nine’s predicted orbit. After an exhaustive selection process, including a visual inspection of the original images, they narrowed the list down to one particularly strong candidate.
A Candidate Worth Watching
This leading candidate displayed all the hallmarks expected: the IRAS and AKARI sources showed an angular separation between 42 and 69.6 arcminutes, with no repeat detections at the same position across the two epochs. Further supporting its credibility, the AKARI detection probability maps confirmed the object’s consistency with a slow-moving body, showing detections only at the expected time frames and none six months earlier.
Still, as exciting as this candidate is, caution remains critical. The researchers acknowledge that data from IRAS and AKARI alone are insufficient to fully determine an orbit or conclusively identify the object as Planet Nine. To move forward, the team recommends follow-up observations using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a powerful instrument capable of detecting faint moving objects within an hour of exposure.
Auto-posted from news source
About The Author
