Therefore,
New world been discovered our:
The Subaru telescope, located at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, allowed the discovery of a new Transneptunian object on the borders of our solar system. Moreover, This object. Therefore, temporarily nicknamed “ammonite” by the team behind its discovery, could well enrich our understanding of the origins and the evolution of the external solar system.
A new object beyond Neptune – New world been discovered our
In 2003. Nevertheless, the discovery of Sedna, a remote object evolving on an extremely elongated orbit, had already surprised the scientific community. Similarly, Its orbit seemed to indicate the existence of a population of objects beyond the Kuiper belt. For example, in an area that some associate with the internal oort cloud. Moreover, The objects of this category. Furthermore, called “sednoids”, are characterized by very eccentric orbits, of which the perihelion remains very far new world been discovered our from the sun, escaping the gravitational influence of giant planets such as Neptune.
Since then. astronomers wonder: these objects are the vestiges of ancient events, such as the passage of a nearby star, or the indirect proof of a hypothetical planet 9 still not detected?
The discovery of ammonitis – New world been discovered our
It was in March. May and August 2023 that the Subaru telescope detected a distant object moving slowly on the bottom of the sky. Additional observations in July 2024. made thanks to the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope, confirmed the existence of this object, now officially designated under the provisional name 2023 KQ14. Research in the archives has shown that the object had already been observed in 2005. 2014 and 2021 by other observatories, including that of Kitt Peak. These old data made it possible to specify its orbit.
Called ammonite, in reference to marine fossils, this object measures between new world been discovered our 220 and 380 kilometers in diameter. This is the fourth sednoid discovered to date. Its orbit is extremely elliptical:
For comparison, Neptune is around 30 Au from the Sun.
Object during observations. Image credit: Naoj/Asiaa
A fossilized orbit for billions of years
The simulations of the research team indicate. that ammonite orbit has been stable for at least 4.5 billion years, that is to say since the formation of the solar system. However, clues suggest that around 4.2 billion years ago, a major event has disrupted all of these objects, modifying their trajectories.
According to Dr Fumi new world been discovered our Yoshida. manager of the Fossil project (Training of the Outer Solar System: An Icy Legacy), these distant objects bear witness to extremely ancient physical and gravitational conditions, well prior to the current architecture of the solar system.
« The discovery of ammonitis brings us closer to the understanding of the mechanisms that have shaped the confines of the solar system “. Underlines the researcher.
A weakened hypothesis: planet 9
The existence of the Sednoids had reinforced in recent years the hypothesis of the famous “planet 9”: a massive. distant planet which would explain the groupings of abnormal orbits observed among these objects. However, ammonite orbit differs significantly from those of the three other known sednoids, which weakens this theory.
Dr. Yukun Huang (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) specifies:
« The fact that the ammonite orbit does not. correspond to the other sednoids makes new world been discovered our it less likely the existence of a planet 9 acting as a common influence. It remains possible that a planet has existed. has been ejected since, creating these strange configurations that we observe today. »
Towards a better understanding of the origins of the solar system
For Dr. Shiang-Yu Wang (Asiaa). the importance of ammonitis exceeds the simple addition of a new distant object in our catalog:
« His orbit shows us that something has deeply influenced the external solar system very early in its history. Whether it is a passing star. a disappeared planet, this discovery is a key to the understanding of this era. »
The Subaru telescope. thanks to its large -field observation capacities, remains one of the few terrestrial instruments capable of revealing these discreet but fundamental objects to reconstruct the forgotten history of our solar system.
The details of new world been discovered our the study are published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Further reading: Prime Day-The Garmin Vivoactive 5 “5-star” connected watch at € 170.99 (-19%) – Help astronomers to discover unknown comets in the images of Vera Rubin – Endurance hydrogen in Brazil – Google launches a canary channel to test future new features – “I came across this book by browsing the anthropology department”.
