A giant and unknown planet could exist in our solar system, according to researchers

Our Solar system it could have at least one more planet that we don’t know about yet. Scientists from the University of Bordeaux have presented an investigation where they affirm that a celestial body the size of Uranus could be adrift in the Oort cloud.

Through a simulation, the team of researchers, led by Sean Raymond, demonstrated that a planet could have been “thrown” into this part of the solar system. “Dynamical instabilities between giant planets are believed to be almost ubiquitous and culminate in the expulsion of one or more planets into interstellar space”, indicates the investigation.

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Scientists point out that these celestial bodies could be hidden in the Oort Cloud. “Here we perform N-body simulations of dynamical instabilities while accounting for galactic tidal field torques. We found that a fraction of the planets that would otherwise have been ejected are stuck in very wide orbits analogous to those of Oort cloud comets”, he adds.

To understand it, the Oort cloud is the area that is located at the extremes of the solar system. That is to say, It is the part that surrounds our planetary system like a kind of shell. Being far from the star is considered a “dead zone”. Furthermore, it is made up of icy pieces, space debris the size of mountains or even larger. The Oort cloud could contain billions, or even trillions, of objects.

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According to the researchers, there are two possibilities for a planet to have been ejected into this part of our solar system. The first, which they consider the most feasible with a 7% probability, is that an exoplanet from another planetary system with “irregular” gravity has ejected this celestial body. Thus, he would have reached the farthest part of ours and has been stuck ever since.

The second, and less likely with 0.5%, is that this planet was part of the solar system in its beginnings and that, because it was the “beginnings of the universe” and it was still “settling down”, so to speak, has been “ejected” into the Oort cloud to be trapped in that area.

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This hypothesis is similar to that of the so-called “Planet X”, which is usually seen in science fiction stories. It bears that name because it is assumed that there is a tenth planet of the solar system, when Pluto was considered one, not yet discovered and that it was suggested that it could be in the Kuiper belt, an area that is much closer than the Oort cloud.

However, the research only indicates that there is a possibility and that, according to the experiments carried out, it could be up to the size of Uranus. Because the Oort cloud is very far from the Sun and receives virtually no light, it is currently almost impossible to confirm that there are any exoplanets in this area. But if there was one, It would not pose any danger to the Earth.

Source: Elcomercio

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