A candidate location for Planet Nine from an interstellar meteoroid: The messenger hypothesis. (arXiv:2205.07675v4 [astro-ph.EP] UPDATED)
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Socas_Navarro_H/0/1/0/all/0/1">Hector Socas-Navarro</a>
The existence of a hypothetical Planet 9 lurkng in the outer solar system has
been invoked as a plausible explanation for the anomalous clustering in the
orbits of trans-Neptunian objects. Here we propose that some meteoroids
arriving at Earth could serve as messengers with the potential of revealing the
presence of a hitherto undiscovered massive object. The peculiar meteor CNEOS
2014-01-08, recently put forward as the first interstellar meteor, might be one
such messenger. The meteor radiant is in the maximum probability region
calculated for the Planet 9 location in previous works. The odds of this
coincidence being due to chance are ~1%. Furthermore, some statistical
anomalies about CNEOS 2014-01-08 are resolved under the hypothesis that it was
flung at Earth by a gravitational encounter. Integrating its trajectory
backwards in time would then lead to the region of the sky where Planet 9 is
more likely to reside. Based on the available data, we propose the region at
coordinates R.A. 53.0 +/- 4.3 deg, declination 9.2 +/- 1.3 deg as a plausible
candidate location for Planet 9.
The existence of a hypothetical Planet 9 lurkng in the outer solar system has
been invoked as a plausible explanation for the anomalous clustering in the
orbits of trans-Neptunian objects. Here we propose that some meteoroids
arriving at Earth could serve as messengers with the potential of revealing the
presence of a hitherto undiscovered massive object. The peculiar meteor CNEOS
2014-01-08, recently put forward as the first interstellar meteor, might be one
such messenger. The meteor radiant is in the maximum probability region
calculated for the Planet 9 location in previous works. The odds of this
coincidence being due to chance are ~1%. Furthermore, some statistical
anomalies about CNEOS 2014-01-08 are resolved under the hypothesis that it was
flung at Earth by a gravitational encounter. Integrating its trajectory
backwards in time would then lead to the region of the sky where Planet 9 is
more likely to reside. Based on the available data, we propose the region at
coordinates R.A. 53.0 +/- 4.3 deg, declination 9.2 +/- 1.3 deg as a plausible
candidate location for Planet 9.
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