The Unseen Planet In Our Solar System
There might be a hidden player in our solar system! Scientists are buzzing about the possibility of an unseen planet lurking beyond the fringes. This hypothetical world, often dubbed "Planet Nine," is believed to be a massive, icy giant, playing hide-and-seek in the far reaches of our cosmic neighborhood. Its existence is inferred from the gravitational dance of distant objects, but the elusive planet itself remains elusive in our telescopic sights. Think of it as the mysterious neighbor we suspect exists but haven't officially met. The quest for Planet Nine continues, adding an exciting chapter to the ongoing saga of celestial discovery.
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For more videos and articles visit:
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Animation is created by Bright Side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD...
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our Social Media:
Facebook:
/ brightside
Instagram:
/ brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.of...
Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
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For more videos and articles visit:
http://www.brightside.me
Transcript
00:00 For thousands of years, people knew only about the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn,
00:06 which they could see using simple telescopes or even by the naked eye if conditions were good.
00:12 But in the late 18th century, a famous astronomer named Sir William Herschel
00:17 discovered a new planet that was icy blue in color.
00:21 At first, people thought it was a star, but later they realized it was a planet.
00:26 Today, we know it as Uranus, a planet that's more than 19 times farther away from the Sun than Earth.
00:33 It's so far away that it takes Uranus 84 years to complete one trip around the Sun.
00:41 This astronomer also discovered many other interesting things in space, like double stars and nebulae.
00:47 In the mid-1800s, scientists noticed something pulled Uranus and strangely tugged its orbit.
00:54 They thought there must be another planet out there, and they used math to predict where it would be.
01:00 Finally, in 1846, they found Neptune using a telescope.
01:06 It was too faint to see with the naked eye because it was too far away from the Sun.
01:12 It was all so exciting! Who knows how many other planets could be there,
01:16 lurking in the darkness of our solar system.
01:19 Back in the mid-1800s, astronomers noticed something unusual was happening in the sky.
01:25 A small rocky planet named Mercury was behaving strangely.
01:30 It didn't follow the predictable orbit that was expected of it.
01:33 One of the astronomers was a brilliant French scientist named Urbain Le Verrier.
01:39 He came up with a theory that there could be another planet in our solar system no one had yet discovered.
01:45 It would be located somewhere between Mercury and the Sun.
01:49 This hypothetical planet, which he named Vulcan after the Roman god of fire,
01:54 would have an incredibly hot surface, and it could be a potential explanation for Mercury's strange behavior.
02:01 He never surely claimed Vulcan was really the one thing disturbing the orbit of Mercury.
02:07 But excited by the possibility of discovering a new planet,
02:11 astronomers all over the world took the idea of Vulcan.
02:15 For a planet that didn't exist, people committed to developing ideas and getting information about it.
02:22 Some scientists didn't think it was likely that they had missed another planet as big as Mercury.
02:27 It would have been hard not to see it by then.
02:30 But there was a tiny chance of a smaller planet existing inside Mercury's orbit
02:35 that was too close to the Sun so no one could see it.
02:38 One theory said it was about 13 million miles away from the Sun.
02:44 Mercury is the planet with the most eccentric orbit in our solar system,
02:48 but the closest point it gets to the Sun is about 28.5 million miles.
02:54 This means Vulcan would be under half of that distance.
02:57 The theory moved on, saying that if Vulcan existed, it would orbit the Sun every 19 days and 18 hours,
03:05 and its path would be tilted about 12 degrees relative to the path of other planets in our solar system.
03:12 Vulcan's position at its furthest point from the Sun would still be too close to the Sun to be seen with the naked eye,
03:19 even during twilight.
03:20 The only chance of seeing Vulcan would be during a solar eclipse or when it passed in front of the Sun,
03:27 which, as the theory said, would be two to four times a year.
03:31 They had a theory that this mysterious planet was so close to the Sun
03:35 that it could only be seen during a total solar eclipse when the Moon blocked out the Sun's blinding glare.
03:42 So, every time there was an eclipse, scientists would peer at the Sun, hoping to catch a glimpse of Vulcan.
03:49 They were trying really hard, but no matter what, they couldn't find this mysterious planet.
03:55 Some astronomers claim to have spotted it during eclipses,
03:58 but no one could ever confirm or find evidence for that.
04:02 The theory of Vulcan was left waiting for some better times.
04:06 Einstein had a different idea.
04:09 You know about his theory of general relativity, right?
04:12 That's where he claimed gravity wasn't some sort of natural force,
04:16 but a result of space-time curved because of the presence of giant space objects, like planets and stars.
04:24 Planets circle around the Sun in their usual orbit because space-time is curved.
04:30 That means the planets are kind of falling towards the central star of our solar system.
04:37 And Einstein tried to explain Mercury's unusual orbit using his own theory of relativity.
04:43 Unlike the other planets in our solar system, Mercury's orbit wasn't that circular.
04:49 Instead, it seemed to wobble slightly, as if there was an invisible force pulling it away.
04:56 Einstein said this could be happening because the massive gravity of our Sun
05:01 was actually curving the fabric of space-time around it.
05:05 He claimed it's possible this changed Mercury's orbit a little bit.
05:09 It took the scientific community a while to test this theory,
05:13 but it eventually seemed like the most plausible explanation.
05:18 Even though Einstein's theory gave us a more elegant explanation for Mercury's strange orbit,
05:24 some scientists were still holding out hope for Vulcan.
05:27 It was especially hard to let go of the idea of Vulcan
05:30 because Mercury is also the planet that's really hard to see from where we're standing.
05:35 But later, more and more scientists started accepting Einstein's theory above their imagination.
05:42 And they would observe a total solar eclipse
05:44 specifically to test Einstein's theory of relativity, not because of Vulcan.
05:50 And Vulcan is not the only hypothetical planet everyone was talking about.
05:55 In the newer age, some believe there could be a mysterious planet
05:59 lurking in the outer part of our solar system.
06:02 But this one is more likely to exist.
06:04 No one has seen it directly yet, but computer simulations show this so-called Planet 9,
06:10 or Planet X, is probably somewhere there beyond Neptune.
06:15 Neptune and Planet X could be similar in size.
06:19 Planet X could be 10 times more massive than Earth
06:23 and circles around our Sun in an elongated shape,
06:26 which is on average 20 times farther from the Sun than Neptune.
06:30 A year there may last between 10,000 to 20,000 Earth years.
06:36 By comparison, a year on Neptune lasts 165 Earth years.
06:41 Something this big moving out there beyond Neptune
06:45 could explain the unusual orbits of smaller objects in the Kuiper belt.
06:49 The Kuiper belt is the area of our solar system beyond Neptune and where it orbits.
06:55 And there are most likely many asteroids, comets,
06:58 and some other smaller bodies there, mostly made of ice.
07:03 There was another hypothetical planet called Nibiru.
07:07 Remember those rumors that the world could end back in 2012?
07:11 One of the popular scenarios was Nibiru,
07:14 which some claimed would hit our home planet at the end of the year.
07:18 Of course, nothing happened.
07:20 We're still here all set and good, but the idea of Nibiru seemed interesting.
07:25 Stories started in the 1970s when a man named Zachariah Sitchin
07:30 mentioned Nibiru in his book "The Twelfth Planet,"
07:34 claiming it orbits the Sun every 3,600 years.
07:37 But there's no chance a planet with such an eccentric orbit
07:41 wouldn't disrupt other planets in our solar system with its gravity.
07:45 And if it was really coming that close to Earth in 2012,
07:49 we were supposed to be able to see it with the naked eye.
07:53 Some simple calculations showed Nibiru would have been nearly as bright as Mars at its dimmest
07:58 and brighter than the faintest stars you see from a city.
08:02 Oh well, maybe we'll have more luck in the next 3,500 and something years.
08:08 In 2011, a comet named Elenin appeared that many people thought could be Nibiru.
08:15 But when you're looking at comets and planets through a telescope,
08:18 you see they appear differently.
08:21 A comet has a coma, which is a gas atmosphere, together with a tail,
08:26 something a planet doesn't have.
08:29 Plus, this comet didn't slam into the Earth.
08:32 It came too close to our Sun and fell apart.
08:36 The leftover pieces will continue moving on their way to the outer solar system
08:40 for the next 12,000 years.
08:42 But what if we could see it with our own eyes?
08:46 That's it for today!
08:47 So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends!
08:52 Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!