Astronomers searching the WISE infrared data archive think they might find a Jupiter-sized planet lurking near the Oort Cloud.
Astronomers searching the WISE infrared data archive think they might find a Jupiter-sized planet lurking near the Oort Cloud.
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Astronomers searching the WISE infrared data archive think they might find a Jupiter-sized planet lurking near the Oort Cloud.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I’m curious as to why the researchers think the object has a circular orbit, as no other Solar System object does. Perhaps they mean that the orbital eccentricity is close to 0, but even that would be remarkable.
It seems that WISE is becoming more cost-effective by the month.
Most of the planets in our solar system have eccentricities close to 0, especially when you compare their orbits with almost all the other exoplanets so far discovered. I suspect the astronomers are merely assuming that this planet will have an orbit similar to the rest of the solar system.
I also assumed they meant an elliptical orbit that is close to being circular. It does seem a little odd that something orbiting that far out, possibly captured from another system & inclined 45* to the ecliptic, would have a nearly circular orbit – it seems to me more likely such an object would have a fairly eccentric elliptical orbit. But they must believe that based on data they have.
One of the coolest things about science is that it’s always evolving – we never reach a point where we think all the discoveries have been made, that we now “know all there is to know” – we will NEVER reach that point, and it keep things exciting & interesting. There will always be new discoveries & even alterations or complete revisions of theories that explain the way things work…
Ecclesiastes 1:9
“The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
This is true – I guess I should qualify what I said because of course God (and ONLY God…) already knows all the answers but mankind is still searching & we will never know the mind of God, nor have his knowledge & wisdom – at least, not while we’re still “down here” in our present state…