At Astrofísica de Canarias
(IAC) and Complutense University of Madrid, a study has been made by the
researchers, they examined distant objects known as ETNOs “extreme trans
Neptunian objects”. These objects orbit the Sun
at a distance greater than that of Neptune, and till now a total of 21 have
been known. These distant objects,
before being separate from each other and being start orbiting in their
respective orbits, may have made up a dual asteroid in our solar system, by the
mysterious Planet Nine millions of years ago.
This is the conclusion of
the study, which conducted the first spectroscopic analyses of asteroids 2004VN112 and 2013 RF98 – a pair with nearly same orbits.
Research showed the
evidences to support the existence of the hypothetical planet on the edge of
our solar system, because asteroids may have a common origin, and recommend
that they were produced by an encounter with a much more immense object.
Still, there is much more to
know about these objects.
Related to the hypothetical
Planet Nine, proposed in 2016, there are still some questions in our minds
about its nature, but these queries would be easy to understand by the presence
of one or more planets several times more massive than Earth orbiting the sun.
This study could prove as
turning point to characterize ENTOs to confirm or disprove the existence of the
elusive planet.
The researcher measured the
object’s magnitudes and recalculated the orbit of the 2013 RF98 using the
OSIRIS spectrograph on the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC), in the Roque de los
Muchachos Observatory.
Their orbits, they found, are nearly same, and
the poles are divided by just a small angle, proving the presence of a massive body
in the outer realm of our solar system.
You can read more about this
study here.
