Digital Journal: A Global Digital Media Network http://www.digitaljournal.com/print/article/303859[2011-02-21 08:42:05]
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/303859
NASA scientists answer questions about 'Tyche' claims
Posted Feb 20, 2011 by
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Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have released comprehensive answersrelating to a recent proposal by astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire about theexistence of a large planet in the outer part of the solar system.
The JPLstatementfollows recent reports about the proposals by Matese and Whitmorethat were published in the November 2010 edition of the scientific journal
Icarus
. They had proposed the existence of a binary companion to our sun, larger than Jupiter, in thelong-hypothesized Oort cloud - a distant repository of small icy bodies at the edge of oursolar system. The researchers used the name "Tyche" for the hypothetical planet.TheNASA statement explains that the Matese/Whitmore paper argues that evidence forthe planet would have been recorded by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). WISE is a NASA mission, launched in December 2009, which scanned the entire celestialsky at four infrared wavelengths about 1.5 times. It captured more than 2.7 million imagesof objects in space, ranging from faraway galaxies to asteroids and comets relatively closeto Earth. Recently, WISE completed an extended mission, allowing it to finish a completescan of the asteroid belt, and two complete scans of the more distant universe, in twoinfrared bands. So far, the mission's discoveries of previously unknown objects include anultra-cold star or brown dwarf, 20 comets, 134 near-Earth objects (NEOs), and more than33,000 asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter.
FAQs
The informatiove NASA/JPL/Caltech statement included answers to a number of frequently asked questions about the topic.
Q: When could data from WISE confirm or rule out the existence of the hypothesized planet Tyche?
A: It is too early to know whether WISE data confirms or rules out a large object in the Oort cloud. Analysis overthe next couple of years will be needed to determine if WISE has actually detected such a world or not. The first14 weeks of data, being released in April 2011, are unlikely to be sufficient. The full survey, scheduled for releasein March 2012, should provide greater insight. Once the WISE data are fully processed, released and analyzed, theTyche hypothesis that Matese and Whitmire propose will be tested.
Q: Is it a certainty that WISE would have observed such a planet if it exists?
A: It is likely but not a foregone conclusion that WISE could confirm whether or not Tyche exists. Since WISEsurveyed the whole sky once, then covered the entire sky again in two of its infrared bands six months later, WISE would see a change in the apparent position of a large planet body in the Oort cloud over the six-monthperiod. The two bands used in the second sky coverage were designed to identify very small, cold stars (or browndwarfs) -- which are much like planets larger than Jupiter, as Tyche is hypothesized to be.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
This colorful picture is amosaic of the Lagoonnebula taken by NASA'sWide-field InfraredSurvey Explorer, orWISE. Normally, youwould expect a lagoon tobe filled with water, butthis nebula is composedof clouds of gas and dustin which new stars areforming. Also known asMessier 8, or simply M8,the Lagoon nebula isseen here as a largecircular cloud in thecenter of the image,surrounded byinnumerable stars.
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NASA Scientists Answer Questions About Tyche. Tyche Echoes of Planet X or Nibiru
Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have released comprehensive answers
relating to a recent proposal by astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire about the
existence of a large planet in the outer part of the solar system.
relating to a recent proposal by astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire about the
existence of a large planet in the outer part of the solar system.
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