Harvard scientists propose to find 'nature' of Planet Nine at edge of solar system

In a new plan,  Harvard scientists have proposed to find “nature” of hypotical Planet Nine assumed to be lurking somewhere in outskirts of solar system which was established to be a primordial black hole recently in a new study, published September 24 on  arXiv pre-print server.  mysterious and still undiscovered object can be analyzed in depth by finding  "accretion flares" that will establish for scientists wher "Planet Nine" is actually a black hole. While black holes are tiny and as big as a grapefruit, with a mass of about five earth,  hypotical Neptune-sized planet X nicknamed "Planet Nine” is a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farr from Sun on aver than Neptune.  

On July 9, an undergraduate student at Harvard who worked to propose idea, Amir Siraj said in a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics release, In vicinity of a black hole, small bodies that approach it will melt as a result of heating from background accretion of gas from interstellar medium onto black hole.

Dr. Avi Loeb, who developed new method to search for black holes in outer solar system, based on flares that result from disruption of intercepted comets added, “Once y melt, small bodies are subject to tidal disruption by black hole, followed by accretion from tidally disrupted body onto black hole and because black holes are intrinsically dark, radiation that matter emits on its way to mouth of black hole is our only way to illuminate this dark environment.”

As per new study by Harvard,  LSST has capability to find out if object is black holes by observing for accretion flares resulting from impact of small Oort cloud objects. In fact, many future primordial black holes (PBHs) could be informed by this new detailed mamatical modelling and computer simulations.  

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LSST’s depth will allow detection of flares

According to Harvard’s study,  upcoming LSST is expected to have sensitivity which is required to detect accretion flares and study nature of distant objects which cant be orwise seen. While current techlogy would require guidance, it would be only way to see any black hole. “LSST has a wide field of view, covering entire sky again and again, and searching for transient flares,” said Loeb. “Or telescopes are good at pointing at a kwn target but we do t kw exactly where to look for Planet Nine. We only kw broad region in which it may reside.” Siraj added, “LSST’s ability to survey sky twice per week is extremely valuable. In addition, its unprecedented depth will allow for detection of flares resulting from relatively small impactors, which are more frequent than large ones.” 

Harvard’s paper focuses on famed Planet Nine as a prime first candidate for detection. subject of much speculation, most ories suggest that Planet Nine is a previously undetected planet, but it may also flag existence of a planet-mass black hole, according to scientists. While finding would be of unprecedented "scientific significance" that a hypotical discovery of a planet-mass black hole in solar system would hold, research will also help in understanding what’s out re.

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(All Ims Credit: NASA)