Do You Know The Sun Appears To Be Tilting? Planetary Scientists May Have Found Out Why
For a section of planetary scientist community, the Sun appears to be tilting. The reason for this, according to some scientists, is the 'ninth planet' on the edge of our solar system. Earlier this year, America's Caltech University professors, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown predicted the existence of the ninth planet. Another team of researchers from the University of Arizona, led by Indian origin American professor, Renu Malhotra, also have hypothesis supporting the planet's existence.
The distant and large planet is responsible for the slight wobble in the solar system and lending to the tilting appearance of the sun.
"Because Planet Nine is so massive and has an orbit tilted compared to the other planets, the solar system has no choice but to slowly twist out of alignment," says Elizabeth Bailey, a graduate student at Caltech and lead author of the study announcing the discovery.
“The search for planet nine is as much about understanding the effects of planet nine on the solar system, the physics of planet nine, as it is about understanding where it is.
“Because Planet Nine is so massive and has an orbit tilted compared to the other planets, the solar system has no choice but to slowly twist out of alignment," she added.
One of Caltech's researchers, Brown said, “It’s such a deep-rooted mystery and so difficult to explain that people just don’t talk about it. If you ask yourself where the sun is tilted in real life there’s where we predict it should be.”
Renu's paper on the ninth planet's research provides more specific estimates for the "mass and orbit that this planet would have, and, more importantly, constraints on its current position within its orbit." She cautions, however, that this does not prove that world's existence.