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There may be a warp in the Kuiper Belt, possibly caused by \u201cPlanet Y\u201d \u2014 a Mercury-to-Earth-sized world that orbits the sun way beyond the orbit of Neptune.<\/p>\n
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Is there a mysterious \u201cPlanet Y\u201d orbiting the sun way beyond Neptune that\u2019s warping the outer solar system? A new study has found that the Kuiper Belt \u2014 a vast donut-shaped ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune, including Pluto and other dwarf planets \u2014 is not aligned with the plane of the solar system. An unseen planet around the size of Mercury or Earth could be the culprit.<\/p>\n
ForbesMeet \u2018Ammonite\u2019 \u2014 A New World Just Found In The Solar SystemBy Jamie Carter<\/a> The Kuiper Belt is home to dwarf planets like Pluto, Makemake and Haumea, and many other icy objects and so-called Kuiper Belt Objects. It’s Neptune\u2019s presence on the inner edge of the Kuiper Belt that shepherds and sculpts the orbits of objects nearby, and prevents another large planet from forming in its vicinity. However, it can’t be responsible for this new tilt anomaly.<\/p>\n Neptune orbits the sun from, on average, 30 astronomical units (one AU is equivalent to the distance from Earth to the sun).<\/p>\n In this study, published<\/a> in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers measured objects between 80 and 400 AU and discovered that the mean orbital plane of distant Kuiper Belt objects is tilted by roughly 15 degrees relative to the orbital plane of the planets in the solar system. The finding, reported with 96\u201398% statistical confidence, suggests something more than random chance is at play.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s real, this kind of long-lived tilt can\u2019t just be leftover from the past; something has to be holding it there,\u201d said lead author Amir Siraj of Princeton University, via email. \u201cThe simplest explanation is that there\u2019s an undiscovered planet, smaller than Earth but bigger than Mercury, whose gravity is nudging these distant orbits out of alignment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe Kuiper Belt’s Tilted Plane<\/p>\n