Planet Nine, where are you?
Listen 00:06:21Ever since Pluto was demoted from the pantheon of planets, efforts have intensified to designate a replacement. Scientists have detected the presence of…something…about 10 times the mass of Earth and 1000 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Australian researchers mounted a campaign to find the big guy using the SkyMapper telescope at Siding Spring Observatory. The search yielded hundreds of thousands of images that were then sifted by tens of thousands of volunteers, and out of that pile have emerged 4 candidate objects that might be the elusive Planet Nine.
Mars after sunset in the west, Jupiter by 9 p.m. in the east and Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus at 5:15 a across the sky.
The Night Sky Observatory at the Franklin Institute this Thursday evening features astrophysics powerhouse and scientific visualization specialist Dr. Frank Summers.
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