{"id":11815,"date":"2025-06-03T12:24:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T10:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/?p=11815"},"modified":"2025-06-03T12:24:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T10:24:40","slug":"scoperto-un-nuovo-pianeta-nano-sfida-allipotesi-del-pianeta-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/new-dwarf-planet-discovered-challenges-the-planet-x-hypothesis\/","title":{"rendered":"New dwarf planet discovered: challenge to Planet X hypothesis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new discovery at the edge of our planetary system could rewrite what we know about the outer Solar System. A potential <strong>dwarf planet<\/strong>, provisionally called <strong>2017 OF201<\/strong>, has been identified beyond the orbit of Neptune: it is estimated to have a <strong>diameter of approximately 700 km<\/strong> and walk a\u2019<strong>extreme orbit<\/strong>, which employs <strong>25,000 years to complete one revolution around the Sun<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The discovery was published on the <em>arXiv<\/em> and formalised by the <strong>Minor Planet Centre of the International Astronomical Union<\/strong>. But what makes this object even more fascinating is its potential impact on the hypothesis of the mysterious <strong>Planet X<\/strong> (or Planet Nine), the giant celestial body whose existence is still disputed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A mysterious object at the edge of the system<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The celestial body was identified by a team of astronomers from the <strong>Princeton University<\/strong>, thanks to the analysis of <strong>19 images collected over seven years<\/strong> from telescopes <strong>Victor M. Blanco<\/strong> e <strong>Canada-France-Hawaii<\/strong>. The characteristics of its orbit are surprising: the\u2019<strong>aphelion<\/strong>, which is the furthest point from the Sun, is located at over <strong>1,600 times the Earth-Sun distance<\/strong>, while the <strong>perihelion<\/strong> \u00e8 <strong>44.5 times farther than our orbit<\/strong>, similar to that of Pluto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSuch a trajectory suggests that the object has undergone strong gravitational interactions,\u201d says researcher <strong>Eritas Yang<\/strong>. \u201cIt is possible that he was expelled in the <strong>Oort cloud<\/strong>, the remote icy region surrounding the Solar System, only to be called back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>An orbit that challenges Planet X<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many transneptunian objects show <strong>orbits grouped in similar orientations<\/strong>, which has led some scientists to speculate on the presence of an invisible giant planet influencing these trajectories. However, 2017 OF201 <strong>does not follow this pattern<\/strong>, thus casting doubt on the existence of the <strong>Planet X<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis object is an exception,\u201d emphasises <strong>Jiaxuan Li<\/strong>, team member. \u201cIf there really was a Planet Nine gravitationally guiding these bodies, we would expect OF201 to also follow the observed alignment. Instead, its orbit appears to be completely independent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Towards a new map of the outer Solar System<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The discovery of 2017 OF201 reinforces the idea that <strong>the area beyond the Kuiper Belt is by no means empty<\/strong>, as was previously thought. \u201cThere could be <strong>hundreds of similar objects<\/strong>, too distant or weak to be detected yet,\u201d he says. <strong>Sihao Cheng<\/strong>, co-author of the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite technological advances in space and ground-based telescopes, our <strong>Solar System remains largely unexplored<\/strong>, especially in its most remote regions. This new dwarf planet not only expands the map of the cosmos around us, but also reminds us how mysterious the universe we have \u201cat home\u201d still is.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Una nuova scoperta ai margini del nostro sistema planetario potrebbe riscrivere ci\u00f2 che sappiamo sul Sistema Solare esterno. Un potenziale pianeta nano, provvisoriamente chiamato 2017 OF201, \u00e8 stato identificato oltre l\u2019orbita di Nettuno: si stima abbia un diametro di circa 700 km e percorra un\u2019orbita estrema, che impiega 25.000 anni per completare un giro attorno [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":11816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":44,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vita-nello-spazio"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11817,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11815\/revisions\/11817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}