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Article: <[email protected]>
From: [email protected](Nancy )
Subject: Re: Orbital Elements for the 12th Planet
Date: 28 Feb 1997 16:34:47 GMT
In article <[email protected]> Greg Neill
writes:
> Further, the body would at *least* be a major source of
> infrared radiation, and radio waves (much like Jupiter).
> It would be the noisiest thing in our sky next to the Sun.
> It could not possibly be missed.
> [email protected] (Greg Neill)
And perhaps it HAS.
.......
Newsweek, June 28, 1982, page 83
Does the Sun Have A Dark Companion?
A "dark companion" could produce the unseen force that seems to tug at Uranus and Neptune, speeding them up at one point in their orbits and holding them back as they pass. At first scientists blamed the orbital fits and starts on the gravity of Pluto. But four years ago they discovered that Pluto was far less massive than had been thought, and astronomers began to look elsewhere for the source of the mysterious force.
Dwarf: Almost any dark object would fit the bill, but Anderson thinks the best bet is a dark star orbiting at least 50 billion miles beyond Pluto, which is 3.6 billion miles from the sun. It is most likely either a brown dwarf - a lightweight star that never attained the critical mass needed to ignite - or else s neutron star, the remnants of a normal sun that burned out and collapsed.
Other scientists suggest that the most likely cause of the orbital snags is a tenth planet 4 to 7 billion miles beyond Neptune. A companion star would tug the outer planets, not just Uranus and Neptune, says Thomas Van Flavern of the US Naval Observatory. And he admits a tenth planet is possible, but adds that it would have to be so big - a least the size of Uranus - that it should have been observed by now.
To resolve the question NASA is staying tuned to Pioneers 10 and 11, the planetary probes that are flying through the dim reaches of the solar system on opposite sides of the sun. If one undergoes a sudden tug, that would suggest the existence of a nearby tenth planet that would affect only the Pioneer closest to it. If both change course, the case for a distant and powerful dark star would get a boost. But unless NASA gets $3 million to monitor the probes beyond 1982, the Pioneer's messages will fall on deaf ears.