A massive dark object may be lurking on the edge of our solar system, according to scientists. Most comets that fly into the inner solar system seem to come from the outer region of the Oort cloud - a region of icy dust and debris left over from the birth of the solar system. The cloud starts from a point about 93 billion miles from the Sun and stretches for around three light years and contains billions of comets, most of them small and hidden. Now new calculations suggest a large object that is up to four times as big as Jupiter could be responsible for sending them in our direction. The scientists have analysed the comets in the Oort cloud and deduced that 25 per-cent of them would need a nudge by a body of at least Jupiter size before they changed orbit.Astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire at the University of Louisiana came up with theory said that 'something smaller than a Jovian mass would not be strong enough to perform the task'. They believe that our solar system has a hidden 'companion' that has so far remained undetected. The scientists have been studying the cloud using WISE, Nasa's infra-red space telescope that is capable of detecting dark objects. Matese said: 'I think this whole issue will be resolved in the next five to 10 years, because there’s surveys coming on line that will dwarf the comet sample we have today. 'Whether these types of asymmetries in the directions that comets are coming from actually do exist or not will definitely be hammered out by those surveys,' Matese added. 'We anticipate that WISE is going to falsify or verify our conjecture. (Daily Mail)Wednesday 8 December 2010
Massive dark object 'lurking on edge of solar system hurling comets at Earth'
A massive dark object may be lurking on the edge of our solar system, according to scientists. Most comets that fly into the inner solar system seem to come from the outer region of the Oort cloud - a region of icy dust and debris left over from the birth of the solar system. The cloud starts from a point about 93 billion miles from the Sun and stretches for around three light years and contains billions of comets, most of them small and hidden. Now new calculations suggest a large object that is up to four times as big as Jupiter could be responsible for sending them in our direction. The scientists have analysed the comets in the Oort cloud and deduced that 25 per-cent of them would need a nudge by a body of at least Jupiter size before they changed orbit.Astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire at the University of Louisiana came up with theory said that 'something smaller than a Jovian mass would not be strong enough to perform the task'. They believe that our solar system has a hidden 'companion' that has so far remained undetected. The scientists have been studying the cloud using WISE, Nasa's infra-red space telescope that is capable of detecting dark objects. Matese said: 'I think this whole issue will be resolved in the next five to 10 years, because there’s surveys coming on line that will dwarf the comet sample we have today. 'Whether these types of asymmetries in the directions that comets are coming from actually do exist or not will definitely be hammered out by those surveys,' Matese added. 'We anticipate that WISE is going to falsify or verify our conjecture. (Daily Mail)