The 9th planet has ice-covered iron core

Swiss astronomers found the 9th planet to have a solid iron core surrounded by ice and thick gas.

According to Science Alert, January 2016, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, two scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA, published evidence of the existence of a new planet at the outer edge of the solar system . 10 times heavier than Earth. The planet is 149 billion kilometers from the Sun, 75 times farther away from Pluto, and takes 10,000 to 20,000 years to spin around the Sun.

Structure of the 9th planet (Photo: University of Bern, Switzerland).

In a new study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on April 6, Swiss astronomers use available data to find out the true size, brightness and temperature of the planet. 9. They looked at this planet's predicted orbit, and simulated it to be formed from the Sun's planetary disc of 4.6 billion years ago.

"Our research helps shape the physical properties of the 9th planetary candidate in the solar system," said Christoph Mordasini of the University of Bern, Switzerland.

The results showed that the ninth planet resembles a miniature "Uranus" with a solid iron core surrounded by ice and thick gas. This planet has 3.7 times the radius of Earth, the atmospheric temperature above is -226 degrees C.

The team pointed out that, if the Sun is the only source of heat for the ninth planet, it must be much colder, as far as 149 billion kilometers from the Sun. At the time of forming the ninth planet, the enormous gravitational energy generated in the core causes it to melt for billions of years. This temperature contributes to the planet's overall temperature.

The radiation that can be detected around the 9th planet is mainly infrared, because the amount of heat inside the planet is much greater than that of sunlight.