I just read this on the http://news.discovery.com/space/a-massive-planet-lurking-in-the-outer-solar-system.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1 web site.

Here is http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/up-telescope-search-begins-for-giant-new-planet-2213119.html.

So Tyche may be the 9th planet in our solar system (as they said, Pluto is still demoted) and is 4X the size of Jupiter. They are guessing it came from another star, but our sun attracted it through it's gravational
pull.

So what do you think? First Pluto is demoted, and now Jupiter is not the King pin of the planets now. I wonder if it's true, and the orbit of Tyche, if Nasa can program New Horizon to rendezvous with it after it passes
Pluto. Well it will be interesting non the less. I guess we just have to wait till they announce it.

Interesting news. However if it does turn out to be there, I personally don't think it will qualify as a planet. Given how far out it is you can hardly say it's even part of the solar system. I agree with the assessment that it should be in a class of it's own. It seems to me it would qualify as a planetary system, just not a planetary star system. Perhaps a companion planetary system to our own.

That's assuming it's even out there. At the very least it once again calls into question what should and shouldn't be classified as a planet.

http://www.space.com/10863-mystery-planet-tyche-debate.html

As that article says, they've been making a case for this since 1999. This isn't exactly news, and I for one am always a little irritated whenever these two stir up the media without actually having any more evidence to show. Tyche existing would certainly be an important find, but I'm not holding my breath. Here's hoping the next time they get the media's attention they'll have some more evidence.

I haven't given up on Pluto just yet. I refuse to believe it.

I doubt Tyche will count.

I wouldn't doubt it if the Solar System had a Brown Dwarf star orbiting around the sun outside of Pluto's orbit.

Well, either Pluto's not a planet and we have 8 planets, or Pluto is a planet and we have 16+ planets. Either way it's unlikely we'll ever have 9 planets again.

I believe as long it's in the influence of the sun, it can be considered part of the solar system. I agree it will be a different classification, just like how you described. But it's not the only planet that is beyond Pluto. We have 2, more planets in our solar system that is the classification of Pluto. So far without including Tyche, we have 11 planetary bodies, (planets and sub-planets or what ever they decide to call it today) and I believe we have even more.

Just checked we have more. Sedna, Quaoar, and new ones I didn't know about, Orcus and 2007 Or with little number 10 beside it, Makemake and Hauemea, so that is 13, and 14 if Tyche is out there. Doesn't matter if he originated in our solar system, he resides with us now, so he is part of the family, I guess you can say he was adopted. So still part of the family if true. So I lernt something more, we have way more than 13 planets in our solar system.

It's amazing what they call the border of our solar system. I didn't know much until I started looking into New Horizon. I thought our solar system was just the end of Pluto. I am shocked that is like only the 1/2 way point or something like that. We have the Oort cloud, Kuiper Belt, the we have the Bow shock and a few other names I can't remember. Voyager I and II are still in the influence of our sun so they are not in Interstellar Space yet. I am surprised we have no pictures of the Oort Cloud and beyond. Just goes to show you how vast it is out there, that Voyager I and II don't have anything to show for being so far out now.

*edit* Proper name for Pluto and planets like Pluto are called Dwarf Planets. Sorry for any confusion.

The Oort cloud, if it exists, is very far away, and I wouldn't expect any images of objects residing within it for a very very long time. Sedna may be an Oort Cloud object, but it wont even be at it's closest to Earth until the 2070's, so don't expect any images of that for a while.

Our classification system for Planets will change again, I'm sure of it. It just might take some time. What the result will be, I don't know. Classifying the solar system in terms of planets is very limiting anyway. There are so many different places to see in the solar system, and simply having 8 planets doesn't give our solar system credit. There are so many interesting moons, dwarf-planets, proto-planets, Kuiper Belt objects, and so on. If Tyche exists, calling it the 9th or 10th or Xth planet doesn't do anything but make it seem more important to the general public than, say, a moon is.

Has anyone been thinking about the size of FOUR TIMES the size of Jupiter?


I mean, for some comparison.


These are all the planets in the Solar System compared to Jupiter
http://www.imagineeringezine.com/graphics/size2.jpg

I mean, Earth in terms of radius is as big as the Big Red Spot!
http://latenightastronomy.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/earth-and-the-great-red-spot.jpg

So does this mean Tyche rivals the size of the Sun?

Jupiter is 11 Earths in diameter, the sun is 110 Earths.

Edit: oh, the article was mass. In that case: Mass does not determine size. Mass just tells you how much "stuff" there is, but here is a comparison of celestial masses using Jupiter as a metric:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_mass --- Jupiter has a mass of 0.0009546 Suns (or, alternatively, the Sun has a mass of around 1050 Jupiters). Something with 4x the mass of Jupiter would still only have 0.0038184 the mass of the Sun.

I don'tthink I like having all these planetoids around. It's just untidy. We could blow them up and just have eight again.

I haven't heard and I can;t form an opinion until I see that this isn't just internet rumor. however, I don't think it really would change much to the average person any ways. although nasa would probably have to scratch their brains when sending out deep space satalites if they don't want this TYche ruining the trajectery.

LOL. I'm with you TtP.

At any rate, could it be possible Pluto is Tyche's moon but out of orbit for some reason? I mean, if Tyche does in fact exist.

The probability of sending anything out that far and running into any unknown planet is... well... astronomically (:P) small

Really, though, extremely long orbit with an extremely long year means that it'd by far more than likely not be in the path of a satellite, and if such a trans-Neptunian planet was, it'd just be such a huge discovery that the destruction of a satellite would definitely be worth it.

Or we could take them all and use some duct tape and superglue to make one big planet!



Correct me if I'm wrong but Tyche actually existing would go a long way in confirming these guys' hypothesis that mass extinctions on Earth follow a pattern caused by Tyche disrupting the orbits of in the Oort Cloud, so actually this would matter a whole lot to the average person, and the species as a whole.



Pluto is hardly the farthest thing in the solar system...

Its death star.
:starwars: