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Is it an exoplanet if it's out of the solar system?
TOLKIEN WAS RIGHT!!!
About? I am sure there is a relevant Tolkien reference. Just not sure what it is.
Okay, I'm not a scientist here, but can a planet exist without the sun having a very high affect on it if it is "not in the zone"?Not if it orbits the sun. Orbiting the sun makes it by definition in the solar system. Assuming we confirm the existence of Nine, we simply have a bigger solar system than we thought.
Okay, I'm not a scientist here, but can a planet exist without the sun having a very high affect on it if it is "not in the zone"?
I'm not qualified to do the math on that,
The further out we go, I'm not even sure Einstein would be qualified.
The eccentric orbit does make Planet 9 (assuming its existence) very unusual. I'm assuming it's a gas giant, and since it's been described as smaller than Neptune I'm guessing it's larger than Uranus. You'd think that if it had formed at the same time as Neptune and Uranus, etc., it wouldn't have such an unusual orbit. The orbit, to me, suggests that it might have been "captured" by the sun as opposed to being an original part of the solar system, since the other planets have "normal" orbits. But I'm just an amateur with an interest in astronomy, and not an astronomer, so who knows.It will be outside the solar wind, so won't be affected much, if at all, by that but is still bound to the sun by gravity so is affected by the sun that way. An object's (e.g. the sun's) gravity technically never drops to 0, just gets weaker and weaker with distance (inverse square law) until it is so weak that it is negligible. Nine is still close enough to the sun that the sun's gravitational effect has not hit "negligible" and Nine therefore orbits the sun.
Speaking highly speculatively, at that distance I suspect it may be possible that another star passing close to us may possibly be able to knock Nine loose and either add it to its solar system or send it roaming as one of those rogue planets @revsdd and I were discussing. In fact, given it's distance and eccentric orbit, I suppose that's a possible hypothesis as to how we got it in the first place (nicked it from another system). I'm not qualified to do the math on that, though (it would require some heavy duty calculus and likely computer simulation software), and until we find Nine and confirm it's orbit, I doubt even an astronomer would be able to say for sure if this is a real possibility.
But I'm just an amateur with an interest in astronomy, and not an astronomer, so who knows.
Well there are contradictions in space to the way we would do math, such as why the suns atmosphere is hotter than it's core, why Uranus rotates on it's side, and maybe someday New Horizons will answer why the Kuiper cliff exists. I'm sure we'll discover new laws to add to what we know.
I recommend watching Crash Course Astronomy. It's a nice, up-to-date Astronomy 101 for non-astronomers by an astronomer (Dr. Phil Plait, aka The Bad Astronomer) and some of the questions you raise are actually addressed as there are tested hypotheses to explain them (e.g. the sun's atmosphere temperature). Uranus' tilt remains a mystery, though there are some good theories on it. Alas, he finished the last episode a week or so ago so Planet Nine didn't make it in.
Does astronomy require reverence for space? Even if the space is empty?
So far it sure is empty of life, LOL! But that is supposed to be a good thing according to the Fermi paradox.According to quantum theory, there is no such thing as empty space.