Planet 9 Information

Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin's Planet 9 predicted perihelion is at RA 16 hours, aphelion is at RA 4 hours, with it's orbital plane inclined 30 degrees to the ecliptic (see third map below for Planet 9's predicted overall orbit). Brown/Batygin put the location of Planet 9 somewhere close to the aphelion location. However, French researchers put the location between 104 degrees and 134 degrees (based on Cassini spacecraft radio data showing perturbations to the spacecraft's orbit near Saturn), with a maximum probability that Planet 9 is located at 117.8 degrees (that's 117 degrees away from it's perihelion location). The orbital elements of Planet 9 are roughly: a (AU)=700; e=.06; i (deg)=30; w(deg)=150; Omega(deg)=113.

THE MAP BELOW INDICATES APPROXIMATELY WHERE BATYGIN/BROWN ANTICIPATE PLANET 9 IS CURRENTLY LOCATED IN IT'S ORBIT. THE LARGE WHITE SWATH IS AN OVERLY OF BROWN/BATYGIN'S CALCULATED PATH MAP. I'VE DONE THE OVERLAY ONTO A TYCHO 2 STAR MAP, A CATALOG OF 2.5 MILLION OF THE BRIGHTEST STARS IN THE SKY, AND IMPORTED IT INTO A 3D MODEL IN BLENDER. THAT'S THE FAMOUS ORION CONSTELLATION CENTER-LEFT (Tycho 2 star map credit original plot as created by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Constellation figures based on those developed for the IAU by Alan MacRobert of Sky and Telescope magazine.)

FRENCH RESEARCHERS PREDICT (USING CHANGES IN THE CASSINI SPACECRAFT'S ORBIT AT SATURN) THAT PLANET NINE COULD BE AT THIS +117 DEGREE REGION, THE BROAD WHITE DIAGONAL SWATH IN THE BACKGROUND IS AN OVERLAY OF THE CALCULATIONS BY KONSTANTIN BATYGIN AND MIKE BROWN (WHICH YOU CAN SEE BETTER IN THE 3RD IMAGE ON THIS PAGE).

ABOVE IS THE MINUS 117 DEGREE LOCATION (WHICH I LIST HERE IN CASE THE FRENCH RESEARCHERS WERE IMPLYING THE OPPOSITE 117 DEGREE LOCATION (THEIR MAPS SEEMED TO IMPLY BOTH, DEPENDING ON WHETHER ONE LOOKS AT THE SCIENCE PAPER OR THE OPPOSITE FROM THE PRESS RELEASE IMAGES).

This is a map showing where Planet 9 may be. It is based on a much more simple map posted by Mike Brown on his Planet 9 blog at http://www.findplanetnine.com/ , however, I've added a considerable amount of information here. First a key to what his information is. The Grey wavy swath though the middle of the map represents calculations of the numerous possible paths that Planet 9 could take through the sky and still show the effect being observed on other solar system bodies. The green wavy lines show Mike Brown's markings of where the Milky Way galaxy is located (notice that they enclose the actual Milky Way image map I've added). The yellow wavy line represents The Ecliptic, which is the path of the Sun through the sky, but also represents the average location/orbital plane of where most of our solar system planets orbit and move through our night sky. Now for the good part, in the background I've added is a map based on the Tycho 2 catalog of 2.5 million of the brightest stars in the sky, as created by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Constellation figures based on those developed for the IAU by Alan MacRobert of Sky and Telescope magazine (Roger Sinnott and Rick Fienberg). The original map I've created is too big to put here (128 megs), and is detailed enough to show the grid line numbers clearly. I'd be glad to send it to anyone who requests it via "reachjasonh..." (and add @gmail.com to the end of that).

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This is a more complete estimated path map for Planet 9 (as estimated by me) for the current observing period. The orange diagonal line through the star Tabit (in Orion's bow) is the potential orbital path as seen from Earth. It is based on estimates I'm making from a video released by Caltech (that apparently has since been removed, but luckily I recorded/stored locally.) After plotting it, it turns out to be consistent with the reported inclination, 30 degrees, of the orbital axis of hypothetical Planet 9 relative to the Ecliptic (the plane of most of the planets in our solar system.) Planet 9 would be incredibly dim (estimates are from magnitude 18-24) which would be within range of a number of already completed sky surveys by various telescopes (which many of us are sure that professionals are scrambling to), and theoretically would be within the capability of amateurs to acquire with a modest telescope (at least 8", with a good low-noise camera from a very dark site, but very long exposures.) This map is only around ~half of the path, in our Northern hemisphere sky, of Planet 9's potential path (if it is there that is.) The other great difficulty is that it will move extremely slowly through the sky, making it almost impossible in some parts of Planet 9's orbit to identify if one does not store data over a period of months and years (which is why some previous sky surveys have a good chance of picking this up if they've done various observations of the same area of sky over a period of years).

A Greg from Oregon says that surveys that could potentially have already bagged this include Space Watch at magnitude 23, Linear mag. 20?, which he says goes really faint in H band), Pan-STARRS mag. 24, DSS mag. 22, Catalina Sky Survey at mag 19.4, and 2MASS is mag. 14. (which 2MASS may not be up to it, but since it's in different wavelengths it's not impossible that Planet 9 couldn't be bright in that spectrum.)

BELOW ARE ARE SOME OF THE AREAS I'VE CHECKED ALREADY, THE YELLOW BOXES ARE APPROXIMATELY 5 DEGREE SQUARES. THERE IS ONE LOCATION THAT IS REALLY GOING TO GET PARTICULAR SCRUTINY DUE TO A NEW PAPER BY RESEARCHERS FROM ARIZONA.

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