![]() Regardless, as WISE continues to catalog a vast number of infrared sources throughout the cosmos, the mission will keep an eye open for any oddities in the Oort cloud. Ned Wright, principal investigator for the WISE mission, told Discovery News that the theory behind Tyche is based on "ordinary evidence for an extraordinary claim." The researchers are therefore looking to analyze data from NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to find Tyche.īefore we get too excited about the possibility of an imminent historic announcement, it turns out that the majority of the astronomical community isn't particularly confident about Tyche's existence. ![]() Interestingly, as a gas giant of this size is so massive, it would be emitting some heat as it slowly cools since being formed ( in a similar fashion to Jupiter), so it could give away its location if its infrared emissions are detected. That's a quarter of the way to the next star.Ĭomets are thought to have formed in the Oort cloud since the birth of the solar system and, occasionally, they get disturbed by the gravity of a passing star, causing them to plunge toward the sun, like a high diver jumping off the platform toward the pool below.īut say if Tyche is living in the Oort cloud, stirring things up? That might be causing the oddities spotted in some long-period comets. It's unimaginably vast, well beyond our heliosphere, up to around 1 light-year distant. The Oort cloud is a hypothetical volume of space encapsulating our entire solar system and is thought to be the birth place of the long-period comets we see speed through our solar system. Matese and Whitmire have been trying to track down Tyche since 1999 and it's their belief that there must be a massive world crawling through the outer Oort cloud. ![]() They found that many of the comets had strange orbits, contradicting widely accepted cometary theories. What's more, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) might need to create a new planetary class for this object, as it would have most likely formed around another star, only to have been kidnapped by the sun's gravity eons ago.Īstrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette arrived at this theory after analyzing comets passing through the inner solar system. If it does exist, the confirmed number of planets in our solar system would grow back to nine ( sorry Pluto, you're still a dwarf planet) and Jupiter would be relegated to second fiddle. This is a different kind of world, possibly as complex and interesting as Jupiter, but living in a region of space that is as mysterious as the world itself.ĭubbed "Tyche," this hypothetical planet is causing a small buzz. No, the sun's evil twin Nemesis hasn't been found, and the pretend purveyor of doom, Planet X, hasn't been spotted either. That's according to two University of Louisiana scientists anyway. There's a planet, possibly four times the mass of Jupiter, composed of hydrogen and helium, potentially with a system of moons, hiding in the furthest-most reaches of the solar system.
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