Another 139 small planets were discovered in the Solar System

Special objects have been discovered thanks to the Dark Energy Camera, a state-of-the-art device mounted on the Victor Blanco Telescope at the US Cerro Tololo Inter-American in Chile.

They are called "Trans-Neptune objects" (TNO) , about 30-90 astronomical units from the sun (1 astronomical unit is the distance from the sun to the earth) belonging to a small planet. Small planets or micro-planets are astronomical terms used to refer to objects smaller than dwarf planets and planets, but larger than asteroids and not comets.

Victor Blanco Telescope System - (photo: Fermilab)

According to the study published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, a total of 316 TNOs have been recorded in Dark Energy Camera data, but only the aforementioned 139 small planets are unknown. Discovering them is extremely difficult, because they are too far and often lurking in the dark area behind Neptune

According to astrophysicist Gary Bernstein (University of Pennsylvania, USA), a research team member, they are looking more closely at these 139 small planets in hopes of finding clues about something more interesting: the planet. 9th of the Solar System.

Previously, many studies have given clues that in addition to 8 known planets, the Solar System also owns a very large 9th planet, 200 astronomical units from the sun. No one has been able to observe it yet, but many groups of scientists around the world have "seen" it indirectly through the mysterious effects they have noted on other objects on the edge of the Solar System, suggesting that something big - like a giant planet - is using its gravity to stir that distant space.

Bernstein and colleagues also hope to find similar clues but more clearly, based on what these 139 small planets are affected in the secret dark areas they are inhabiting.