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Australian National University reports:
Astronomers from The Australian National University (ANU) are investigating four unknown objects that could be candidates for a new planet in our Solar System, following the launch of their planetary search on the BBC's Stargazing Live broadcast from the ANU Siding Spring Observatory.
Lead researcher Dr Brad Tucker said about 60,000 people from around the world had classified over four million objects in space as part of the ANU-led citizen search for the so-called Planet 9.
"We've detected minor planets Chiron and Comacina, which demonstrates the approach we're taking could find Planet 9 if it's there," said Dr Tucker from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
...
"We've managed to rule out a planet about the size of Neptune being in about 90 per cent of the southern sky out to a depth of about 350 times the distance the Earth is from the Sun," he said.
takyon: Estimates of Planet Nine's size put it at as little as half the radius of Neptune. The likely colder temperature of such a planet could result in a higher density.
The article mentions 2060 Chiron and 489 Comacina.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 01 2017, @01:03AM
I remember participating in one of the early zooniverse projects where you classified galaxies. Some of the galaxies had pretty clear imagery with visible dust lanes or spirals. Others were red blobs. But they were distinguishable as galaxies (since pretty much every red object is a galaxy when you go that far out).
With the Planet Nine search, I don't think I saw one dwarf planet or asteroid in any of the 30 sets I looked at. Some series of images were missing frames, and some frames suddenly went negative.
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