Possible Giant Planet 4X Jupiter in OUR Solar System

[SiliconJon]

SPACE.com -- Giant Stealth Planet May Explain Rain of Comets from Solar System's Edge

Don't worry, it's not a "nemesis", not that the Nemesis did anything other than prepare to fire anyway!

Our sun may have a companion that disturbs comets from the edge of the solar system — a giant planet with up to four times the mass of Jupiter, researchers suggest.

A NASA space telescope launched last year may soon detect such a stealth companion to our sun, if it actually exists, in the distant icy realm of the comet-birthing Oort cloud, which surrounds our solar system with billions of icy objects.

The potential jumbo Jupiter would likely be a world so frigid it is difficult to spot, researchers said. It could be found up to 30,000 astronomical units from the sun. One AU is the distance between the Earth and the sun, about 93 million miles (150 million km).

Most systems with stars like our sun — so-called class G stars — possess companions. Only one-third are single-star systems like our solar system.

...

[Whir]

"Only" one-third. Like 33% is a small number?

I personally don't buy it. Even if the thing is difficult to observe directly, its gravitational effects should be quite pronounced.

[surreal]

That's what I was thinking about... not that I don't believe it but why haven't we seen the gravitational pull? Why would temp make it tough to spot?

[Steve R Jones]

If it is there - hasn't been there a really really long time so nothing much has or will change to comets etc?

[Creatures]

4x jupiter is most likely already a star, jupiter is already close to a critical mass turning into a star (AFAIK)

Creatures

[surreal]

wait, planets turn into stars?

[Steve R Jones]

That's news to me too..

[Creatures]

Jupiter - The Star that Might have Been
this is the first search result i got, but I'm pretty sure there are some that look more legit ;P

oh damn it, 60 times its mass.. ok i was incorrect ;P

Creatures

[surreal]

If our king of the planets were about sixty times more massive than it is, it would indeed be a star!. More mass would not make Jupiter grow in size, but rather, cause the planet to collapse from compression under gravity. At this point, thermonuclear reactions would ignite and Jupiter would become a luminous star with a diameter of about 100,000 miles

Interesting. Thanks Creatures

[Whir]

Jupiter - The Star that Might have Been
this is the first search result i got, but I'm pretty sure there are some that look more legit ;P

oh damn it, 60 times its mass.. ok i was incorrect ;P

Creatures

Phew. I didn't want to have to come in and lay the smack down on you.

Many of the exoplanets we've found are several times the size of Jupiter already. Most orbiting at or around Mercury's distance from the Sun. Pretty crazy stuff.

[Chuckiechan]

I think it's a clear planet. That's why we can't see it.

[osprey4]

It's Al Gore, I tell you!!

[no1_vern]

Clear or not, there are NO gravitational anomalies that might point to such existing.

IN FACT: Cosmic Log - 'Death Star' debunked

'Death Star' debunked
By Alan Boyle

Doomsayers have been wringing their hands for years over the possibility that an unseen companion to our sun periodically diverts a hail of comets toward Earth, sparking mass extinctions like cosmic clockwork. Now an astronomer has shown that the evidence for such a cycle in the flux of comets or asteroids doesn't actually exist.