Astronomers discovered the object called “Niku” that is considered as a minor planet that orbits beyond Neptune.
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If Batygin’s name sounds familiar, it might be because he was one of the members of the study that pointed towards astrophysical evidence of what has been dubbed ‘Planet Nine’ on the fringes of our solar system. The trans-Neptunian object (TNO) actually moves backwards around the sun, and it has scientists scratching their heads.
This in itself is unusual, but what is even stranger is that it orbits our sun in the opposite way to everything else we have seen in our solar system making it highly unusual.
With each new space discovery, we realize how much we still don’t know about the solar system.
A odd object has been spotted in our solar system just beyond Neptune that is unconventionally moving upwards. At first the astronomers thought Niku’s abnormal movement could be related to Planet Nine, another baffling object even further away than Neptune.
A report published in Nature World News informed, “Niku follows an “odd” orbit that is tilted at 110 degrees, different from the usual tilt of other planets in the Solar System”. Various theories, ranging from a hidden planet to an unseen star, are all “problematic” when trying to explain its unusual behavior. This flat plane of the solar system – a disk in which planets move around the sun – is a defining quality of a planetary system.
Its peculiar course is an oddity to astronomy and suggests that it may have been knocked off course and its orbit is being affected by the pull of an external force outside our solar system.
While there are lots of minor planets that we know about – ie. objects smaller than planets that aren’t comets – and scientists are finding more all the time, Niku doesn’t behave like the rest of them. “When you consider the fact that Niku orbits the sun in the opposite direction of nearly everything else in the solar system, it’s not hard to see where the name came from”.
Adding to the mystery, Niku is also spinning backward in the opposite direction compared to the rest of the planets, according to Engadget.
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The discovery of Niku hints at more trans-Neptunian objects that are following similar orbits. It seems possible that a collision could have sent Niku spiraling off on its own, or that the TNO was captured from another part of the galaxy when it passed close enough to the sun, but whether either of these could explain the object’s behavior is still unclear.
