The Search for Planet Nine: A New Frontier in Our Solar System

Recently, there was a bombshell announcement in the scientific community that revealed the existence of smaller objects in the outer solar system that are influenced by the gravity of a massive hidden ninth planet. This planet is estimated to be 10 times more massive than Earth and orbits the sun every 15,000 years. The discovery has sparked immense interest and curiosity among astronomers and space enthusiasts alike.

Representing the Planets with Everyday Objects

To help visualize the scale of our solar system, I decided to use everyday objects to represent the planets. I began by reviewing the scale of the first eight planets, using a football field as my canvas. Starting with Mercury, which orbits the sun at about 10 yards away, I used a small pepper flake to represent its size and distance from the sun. Next up was Venus, which is slightly farther away at 19 yards, represented by a tiny pinhead. Earth, our home planet, takes center stage at the 26-yard line, with a grain of salt orbiting around it.

Mars, the red planet, is located at about 40 yards away from the sun, and its size can be likened to a fleck of pepper. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter adds another layer of complexity to our model, while Jupiter itself takes up space equivalent to a grape at about 135 yards from the sun. Saturn, with its slightly smaller scale than Jupiter, orbits at two and a half football fields away from the sun. Uranus and Neptune, both pea-sized planets, take their places at nearly eight football fields away from the sun.

Understanding the Scale of Planet Nine

To put the ninth planet into perspective, I would need to walk for five and a half hours to reach it from the Earth's orbit. The distance between our solar system's known boundaries and the hypothetical Planet Nine is estimated to be 309 football fields away, or 17.5 miles. This means that if you were to park your spaceship halfway to Planet Nine, you would still have a significant amount of space left before reaching it.

The Sun's Scale: A Perspective on Our Star

From a different perspective, the sun can be seen as a soccer ball with our solar system represented by its end zone. The width of this column is equivalent to the extent of our entire known solar system. What's fascinating is that despite being massive, our star, the sun, is relatively small when compared to other stars in the universe.

A Galaxy-Sized Universe: Expanding Our Perspective

Twenty years ago, astronomers at NASA made a groundbreaking discovery using the Hubble telescope. They pointed the instrument at the darkest patch of the night sky for 10 consecutive days and captured an image that revealed hundreds of billions of galaxies, each containing hundreds of billions of stars just like our own Milky Way. The portion of the sky represented in this image is equivalent to the size of Roosevelt's eye on a dime held at arm's length.

The Scale of Our Universe: A Grain of Sand

To put this into perspective, there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all the beaches, playgrounds, ocean floors, and deserts on our planet. The next time you're near some sand, take a handful and imagine that one of those tiny grains is our sun with its orbiting planets. Then, while holding that container, contemplate how many handfuls of sand exist on our planet. This realization can lead to an infinitesimally small chance that we might be alone in the universe.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(shaking can clicking)(lid popping off)(aerosol spraying)- Recently there was abombshell announcementin the scientific communitythat there's a bunch of smaller objectsin the outer solar systemthat appear to beinfluenced by the gravityof a massive hidden ninth planet.So this planet is 10 timesmore massive than Earth.It's a hundred billion kilometers away,and it takes 15,000 yearsto orbit the sun once.So I've seen some pretty impressive videosabout the scale of the solar system,but they're all still pretty abstract.Because they're either usingrenderings of the planetsor they're using objects and distancesthat have no real world association.So I'm going to attempt to fix that todayby representing the planets with justjunk you could findlying around your houseoverlaid onto this football field.So we'll start by reviewing the scaleof the first eight planets,and then I will attempt to blow your mindby showing you exactlyhow far away the newlypredicted ninth planet is.(bell dings)♪ I'm so I'm so I'm so ♪♪ I'm so I'm so I'm so ♪(aerosol can clicking and spraying)If you ask how far awayEarth orbits the sun,most people give an answer...- I don't know...- Like this...- Right here, I guess.- And it's kind of understandable.About right there?- OkayStop.- Because every pictureof the solar system everlooks like these, including my own reporton the solar system from the fourth grade.(buzzer buzzing)So this is the true scaleof the solar system,starting with our sizefive soccer ball, sun,which puts Mercury at the 10 yard lineas a mere fleck of pepper.(jazzy music)Next is Venus at the 19 yard line.(jazzy music continues)And it's about the head of a pin.Next up is my favorite planet, Earth.(jazzy music continues)Orbited by our grain of salt, moon.(jazzy music continues)So if you retain nothingelse from this video,just remember that Earth isthe size of a head of a pinand it's at the 26 yard line.(jazzy music continues)And as the final rocky planetwe have Mars at the 40 yard line,also a fleck of pepper.And now we start to see bigger gaps.And more than a footballfield away from our sun,we have Jupiter which isthe scaled size of a grape.(jazzy music continues)And after a little bit of exercise,we come to Saturn which isa slightly smaller grape,and two and a half football fieldsaway from our soccer ball sun.(jazzy music continues)Next up is the seventh planet, Uranus,which is the size of a pea.And its orbit is an averageof five football fieldsaway from our sun.(jazzy music continues)And finally, we come to Neptune,which is also the size of a peaand orbits around our sun,the size of a soccer ball,nearly eight football fields away.Now this view should help you appreciatethe difficulty in accurately representingboth the size and distancebetween the planetsin a single image.Okay, so before we get to thenew ninth planet, let's recap.(jazzy music continues)So we've got a pepper flake atthe 10 yard line for Mercury.And then a pinhead at the18 yard line for Venus.And then another pinhead forEarth at the 26 yard line.And then a pepper flakefrom Mars at about the 40.And then of course the asteroid belt.And then we make it to Jupiter,which is a grape at about 135 yards.Then we cross the street to get to Saturn,which is a grape that orbits at abouttwo and a half football fieldsaround our soccer ball sun.Then we double our distance from the sunto get to the seventhplanet which is a peaat five football fields away.And finally, at nearlyeight football fieldsaway from our sun,we have another pea, which is Neptune.(jazzy music continues)And now we've laid the frameworkfor understanding just howfar away Planet Nine is.Because to reach it, I would need to walk.And to walk some more.And to keep walking at a brisk pacefor five and a half hoursbefore I finally reachedthe pea that is Planet Nine.And while of course you can't see it,you'll just have to take my wordthat directly in front ofus, 17 and a half milesor 309 football fields awaythere's a yellow size five soccer ballsitting in an end zone.In fact, the width of that column you seerepresents the extent ofour entire solar systemas we know it today.(jazzy music continues)From a different perspective,this would be your viewif you parked your spaceshiphalfway to Planet Nine.It blows my mind that relatively speaking,our sun, 17 and a half miles away,would be able to keep this pea in orbit.But what's just as fascinating to meis when you considerthat in our scale model,the sun is represented by a soccer ball,which anyone could easilyfit inside a soccer ball.And yet our massive star we call the sun,is pretty small whencompared to some other stars.In fact, the largest star we knownext to our soccer ball size sunwould be as tall as theEmpire State Building.So I want to close by telling you guysthe craziest thing I learned about spacewhile working at NASA for nine years.Twenty years ago, astronomersdid something pretty riskyand decided to point the Hubble telescopeat the darkest patch ofthe night sky for 10 days.Now, this was risky becausetime on the Hubble telescopewas extremely limited,and there was a good chancethe image would come back completely dark.So they started exposing the shot.And for 10 days, photonsentered the telescopeand ended their journeyof billions of yearson Hubble's CCD detector.And at the end of 10 days,this was the resulting image.With the exception of these single stars,every speck, smudge, andspiral you see in this imageis a galaxy with hundredsof billions of starsjust like our own Milky Way.And what truly makes this mind blowingis the portion of the skyrepresented in this imageis the size of Roosevelt's eye on a dimeheld at arms length.To think about it another way,there are more stars in the universethan there are grains ofsand on all the playgrounds,beaches, ocean floors anddeserts on our planet.So next time you're nearsome sand, take a handful.And just imagine thatone of those tiny grainsis our sun with its orbiting planets.And then look at the hundreds of thousandsof additional grains of sand in your handeach with their own orbiting planets.And then while holding thatcontemplate how many handfulsof sand exist on our planet.So in my mind, regardless of how you thinkthis whole universe came to be,there seems to be aninfinitesimally small chancethat we are alone.(jazzy music continues)\n"