Further Evidence for Existence of Planet Nine, The Celestial Scapegoat

Two planetary dynamicists from the University of Arizona, Renu Malhotra and Kat Volk, have found 150 objects with orbital paths that are 7 to 8 degrees off of the orbital plane.  Their findings once again suggest that there is a sizeable planet beyond Neptune.  The researchers have deduced that such an orbital perturber would need to be in the same vicinity as the objects it is influencing, and, based off that assumption, have calculated that it would need to have about the same mass as Mars.  Although that is a logical assumption to Neptune’s location, that, by no means, makes it a certainty.  The most obvious reason for this, is that if, indeed, the source of the perturbations is in the same vicinity as effected orbitals, why has it not been observed?   Using the example of Mars, which has a mean apparent visual magnitude of -2.455 at its current location, it should have been documented long ago. With the distance from which the effected 150 objects have been observed, which are located at or near 4.65 billion miles out from the sun, our modern astronomical observation technology, would have almost certainly spotted it by now.

It would be more reasonable to begin with what has historically induced orbital perturbations.  It is common knowledge in the astronomical community that Jupiter not only does this very thing, but it does so even to the point of  it’s own peril, as was the case with comet Shoemaker–Levy 9.  The foundation for this hypothesis has in fact already been laid by the five-planet Nice model.  Further reason for making this the case is the findings of Caltech professor Mike Brown and assistant professor Konstanin Batygin, which have determined the existence of a planet they have nicknamed Planet Nine.  This distant fifth gas giant has a mass of about 10 times that of Earth and has an orbit about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune.  The first premise remains even at this distance: with modern astronomical observation technology it would have almost certainly been spotted by now.

This orbital perturber has become the unseen celestial scapegoat for both of these scientific studies.  These studies, in effect, have become two witnesses that agree in their testimonies that this object, however elusive to modern technology, does indeed exist somewhere beyond Neptune in the vast wilderness of space known as the Kuiper Belt.  These facts, having been established, begs the question; “How has this celestial scapegoat evaded detection”?  There is only one theory that is sound, insofar as only one planet sized body fits the bill.  That exoplanet planet lies in the constellation Draco and carries the designation Tres-2b.

TrES-2b was discovered on August 21, 2006 by the TrES (Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey) by detecting the transit of the planet across its parent star (GSC 03549-02811) using Sleuth (Palomar Planet Search Telescope) and PSST (Planet Search Survey Telescope), both a part of the TrES network of 10–cm telescopes. The W. M. Keck Observatory confirmed the discovery on September 8, 2006, by measuring the radial velocity of the star that hosts TrES-2b.

TrES-2b has since been nicknamed “Dark Knight“, due to the fact that it reflects less than 1 percent of the light that hits it, making it darker than the blackest lump of coal, or dark acrylic paint.  Researchers propose that light-absorbing chemicals such as vaporized sodium and potassium or gaseous titanium oxide in the planet’s atmosphere could help explain why it is so dark.  Whatever the cause may be, the fact remains that TrES-2b is stealthily cloaked in the pitch black backdrop of space.  In fact, we only know of its existence because the only way it can be seen is exactly how it was discovered, that being a transit across its parent star.

With all these facts brought to bare, it can be hypothesized this is the very reason this Celestial Scapegoat remains unseen.