In the Solar System there could be at least two planets located beyond Pluto whose existence has gone unnoticed until now. This is suggested by the calculations of an international team of researchers, including experts from the universities of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, and the Complutense of Madrid (UCM).
As they indicate, the presence of these bodies would allow to explain the strange orbital behavior of some trans-Neptunian objects , that is, those whose orbit is located beyond Neptune. "This excess of objects with orbital parameters different from those expected leads us to think that some invisible forces are altering the distribution of its orbital elements.
The most likely explanation is that there are unknown planets beyond Neptune and Pluto ”, says astronomer Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, from the UCM, co-author of the work. "Their exact number is uncertain, as our data is limited , but they suggest that there are at least two planets, and probably more, in the confines of our system," he says.
However, in their study, published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters , these scientists recognize that the data they provide collides with what current models that try to explain the formation of the Solar System predict, which do not conceive of the existence of other planets beyond Neptune, and that their analysis is based on a very small sample, of only thirteen objects, although they hope to expand it in the coming months.
Photo: NASA
