Tyche, Giant Hidden Planet, May Exist In Our Solar System

We may have lost Pluto, but it looks like we might be getting Tyche.

Scientists may soon be able to prove the existence of the gas giant, which could be four times the size of Jupiter, according to astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The two first proposed Tyche's existence in order to explain a change in path of comets entering the solar system, according to The Independent.

From the The Independent:

Tyche will almost certainly be made up mostly of hydrogen and helium and will probably have an atmosphere much like Jupiter's, with colourful spots and bands and clouds, Professor Whitmire said. "You'd also expect it to have moons. All the outer planets have them," he added.

For a graphical representation of Tyche, click here.

So how could we have missed such a massive planet in our own solar system?

Well, it's 15,000 times further from the sun than Earth, according to Gizmodo. Tyche (if it does exist) lies in the Oort cloud, the outer shell of asteroids in our solar system.

Despite what the scientists believe they will find in the data (which will be released in April and was collected by NASA Wise space telescope), there is at least one flaw in their theory. Theoretically, a planet of Tyche's size should seriously disturb comets in the inner Oort Cloud, but that effect is yet to have been observed, according to The Independent.

But even if it does exist, it still may not be deemed a planet.

From Gizmodo:

If its existence is finally confirmed, its Solar System planet status may not be guaranteed. The reason: Astronomers theorize that Tyche could be a planet born in another star system and captured by ours.

The current name (which may change) is derived from the name of a Greek goddess that "governed the destiny of a city," according to the Mail.

If we've missed a planet in our own solar system for this long, what else are we missing?

Comments

[smolensk-lies]

01:24 PM on 03/28/2011

wow. maybe they can point that brand new infrared WISE telescope at it and check it out.

What's that? they shut down the one year old WISE space telescope because of coolant problems? coolant problems in -270c space? oh well. guess theres nothing out there to worry about

[Coyote1177]

10:02 PM on 02/20/2011

Tyche.

[Coyote1177]

10:02 PM on 02/20/2011

New Planet?

[wacpre]

01:55 AM on 02/20/2011

If Tyche really exists, it is a very exciting!

[Rick in Arizona]

04:42 PM on 02/19/2011

From NASA yesterday:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/wise20110218.html

[James Earwicker]

12:22 PM on 02/19/2011

The speculation about the planet is worth it if for no other purpose than generating this comment thread. What an interesting cross-section of humanity. I laughed many times, so I suppose that means there is hope for all of us. Good luck with the planet by the way! I was in school when the first planet outside the solar system was discovered and in our astrophysics class we had to calculate its size based on the stellar "wobble" it created. The math on this one, even though undoubtedly not done by hand or for fun to torture undergrads, must be a doosey - somebody still has to program it in.

[Get Planted]

05:44 AM on 02/19/2011

Nerd Alert!!

[nongrata]

01:48 PM on 02/18/2011

well it's obvious that something is affecting pluto and uranus's orbit so this does seem possible...besides we (humans) are pretty primitive so that could also explain our lack of detection.

[capricornamy]

02:32 PM on 02/18/2011

Indeed, there is something out there effecting the Planets ... NASA has been aware of it since 1983, but decided to keep it quiet until now. John Matese and Daniel Whitmire have been working on this for some time, and have posted a few articles about their work ... the strange part is why would they decide to change the name of the object now, after all of these years? They hinted in their works that it was a dwarf star, not an unseen "NEW" planet. I sent the information in yesterday to "Know something we don't? E-mail us" The information was either freely given or leaked to the "StarViewerTeam" in Spain sometime in 2009, and a fantastic illustration was produced showing this Brown Dwarf Star & its 6 Planets in great detail. They even high-lighted its outermost planet, and tracked it month by month until December of 2012 with 8 slides ... all of this was sent in to this site ... My hope is that HP will review this information, and maybe post an article on it.

Thank you.
Amy

[Get Planted]

05:42 AM on 02/19/2011

The extensive astro-babble in your post implies that you have some basic knowlege about astronomy. There is much difference between the smallest dwarf star and the largest gas-giant planet. The change in the name from dwarf star to a planet was a minor refinement based on new data.

[ZoeT]

02:22 AM on 02/18/2011

To paraphrase Don Henley: "It's not here; it's not coming."

[Bobbiethejean]

10:42 PM on 02/17/2011

I love how there are so many clowns going "well why can't we just see it wiff der telliescopes? DERP." Our solar system is just a WEEEE little bit bigger than your average back yard, ya know? I mean Pluto is about 4.5 BILLION miles away from the sun. Dwell on that and the implications.

[AeJaa]

12:06 AM on 02/18/2011

" Dwell on that and the implications." --Bobbiethejean

..and then dwell a little more. And then..some more, and more...

[wrabbitt]

09:51 PM on 02/17/2011

Guess its too far away to see, like Bigfoot.

[tinwings]

02:10 PM on 02/17/2011

Mel Torme' sung a song a while ago called "Show Me The Way To Get Out Of This World, That's Where Everything Is'

[Palspal2]

02:03 PM on 02/17/2011

Strains credulity.

[Mummyscurse]

06:53 PM on 02/21/2011

Isn't that the name of the new, Republican Senator from Minnesota?

[JaxReader]

01:57 PM on 02/17/2011

I still miss Pluto being a planet. :(

[Bayard Waterbury]

07:58 PM on 02/17/2011

Me too!! He had so much fun with Mickey!!

[JaxReader]

08:08 PM on 02/17/2011

Sometimes a little too much fun and we had to look the other way, but I never judged him.

[mainenwo]

01:57 PM on 02/17/2011

I say again why can't Hubble see it ? if its there

[Bayard Waterbury]

08:00 PM on 02/17/2011

Probably never directed Hubble to it's place. Remember that Hubble is mostly about extra-solar-system space. We have lots of ground based telescopes for the Solar System.

[Dave Harpe]

02:38 PM on 02/18/2011

Telescopes won't help until they can get some idea where to look. Anyway, the lack of gravitational pull on the comets says it's probably not really there, or nowhere near as big as they say. I think it at this size, it is approaching a brown dwarf, a kind of star, and is likely to produce a lot of infrared. No one has found a big infrared source in the Oort clouds.