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Mystery object in weird orbit beyond Neptune cannot be explained

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So, I'll tell you why aliens are not a scam, in my opinion. This object goes round and round. Never leaving its orbit. You can't explain that. You can't explain why this object is in orbit
 

DavidDesu

Member
Two pages in and I still don't really know whats happening here and why it's interesting, something orbiting Neptune vertically.. and what does 500 MYR mean?

Help me Gaf, I've just woken up with a hangover.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Jupiter%20Moons%20Monolith.jpg
 

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
it's above the ecliptic and moving further upwards, currently

I could make a crude paint drawing but that seems unnecessary?

I don't know what this even means.

What's the ecliptic, what does upwards mean in space, and by currently, do you mean that it's next orbit will be further out or the spot it's at now is further out than we've seen or some shit?
 

aaaaa0

Member
Two pages in and I still don't really know whats happening here and why it's interesting, something orbiting Neptune vertically.. and what does 500 MYR mean?

Help me Gaf, I've just woken up with a hangover.

Basically it's an unknown something, that's orbiting the sun in the opposite direction and not in the same horizontal plane as everything else in the solar system.

They're not sure how something like that could have happened, not sure where the object came from, and don't understand why its orbit seems to be stable.
 

SPCTRE

Member
I don't know what this even means.

What's the ecliptic, what does upwards mean in space, and by currently, do you mean that it's next orbit will be further out or the spot it's at now is further out than we've seen or some shit?
The Wiki article on Eris (also a TNO with an unusual orbit) has a decent image that may be helpful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_(dwarf_planet)#Orbit

The ecliptic is the plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun, which is where most of the planets are orbiting (roughly) since they were formed in an accretion disk.
 
Although the majority of Centaurs are thought to have originated in the scattered disk, with the high-inclination members coming from the Oort cloud, the origin of the high inclination component of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) remains uncertain.

"Most of the Centaurs come from all around, with the high-anglers coming in from the Oort Cloud. But these high-anglers from out past Neptune? We don't even TNO"

We report the discovery of a retrograde TNO, which we nickname "Niku", detected by the Pan-STARRS 1 Outer Solar System Survey.

"Our STARRS search scouted out this great counter-spinner, Niku, from out there"

Our numerical integrations show that the orbital dynamics of Niku are very similar to that of 2008 KV42 (Drac), with a half-life of ∼500 Myr.

"The computer showed that Niku has moves like 2008 Drac, and will last almost 500 million years"

Comparing similar high inclination TNOs and Centaurs (q>10 AU, a<100 AU and i>60&#8728;), we find that these objects exhibit a surprising clustering of ascending node, and occupy a common orbital plane.

"And our other finds like Niku? Almost all of them are on the same level"

This orbital configuration has high statistical significance: 3.8-&#963;.

"The fuck are the odds"

An unknown mechanism is required to explain the observed clustering.

"POWERED FLIGHT"

This discovery may provide a pathway to investigate a possible reservoir of high-inclination objects.

"THERE COULD BE MORE"
 

Slayer-33

Liverpool-2
"Most of the Centaurs come from all around, with the high-anglers coming in from the Oort Cloud. But these high-anglers from out past Neptune? We don't even TNO"



"Our STARRS search scouted out this great counter-spinner, Niku, from out there"



"The computer showed that Niku has moves like 2008 Drac, and will last almost 500 million years"



"And our other finds like Niku? Almost all of them are on the same level"



"The fuck are the odds"



"POWERED FLIGHT"



"THERE COULD BE MORE"

Fuuuuuuck

Jesus fuck!
 
I want to get hyped but these thing always turn out to be more boring in reality.

To be fair, discovering an object that orbits the sun like this is pretty cool astronomy wise, it would be like finding a vegetarian shark. It opens up a whole new set of possibilities for planets in our own system. We have always looked for them on the planetary disc, but if turns out to have some real substance it would mean a lot more places to look.

But if I had to guess, I would say it's probably it's probably JUST a Rogue planet the sun captured God knows when. Which in of itself is pretty amazing, seeing as how the circumstances would have to be almost perfect to pull that off.
 

KarmaCow

Member
I want to get hyped but these thing always turn out to be more boring in reality.

Maybe you don't need to get hyped for no reason then.

The only people saying anything outlandish to people who aren't interested in astronomy are people who aren't interested in astronomy.
 
Isn't this kind of terrifying, in a way?

How long has it been there exactly?

We don't even know much about what accounts for 68% of the energy and 27% of the mass of the entire universe yet. An orbital anomaly in our solar system, that we are still constantly discovering new things about, isn't really surprising. The tech in astronomy is constantly advancing and it would be terrifying if we weren't finding new stuff compared to centuries old discoveries.
 

Velcro Fly

Member
Pretty interesting stuff.

I love when new things like this are found that throws the way we see our solar system off balance a little bit.

Also I missed the part originally about retrograde orbit. Really damn weird now.
 
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