Re: Planet X/12th Planet Search in Early 1980's

Article: <[email protected]> 
Subject: Re: Planet X/12th Planet Search in Early 1980's
Date: 3 Apr 1998 14:22:52 GMT

In article <[email protected]> Jim Scotti writes:
> All these articles discuss the possibility of a new planet and 
> maybe even some unconfirmed reports, but they are not 
> scientific proof that there was a planet found or that there 
> is a coverup.

All this explained away by adding a fraction of a percent in weight to
one of the outer planets?  That's about as logical as claiming a
slowing rotation on weather!

Astronomy magazine, Dec '81, discussion on Planet X
:: However, tiny Pluto is 100 to 1,000 times too small to fully 
:: account for Uranus' wobble, according to Thoman Van 
:: Flandern of the USNO.  A brief flurry of excitement, 
:: followed Charles Kowal's 1977 discovery of the planetoid 
:: Chiron, orbiting between Saturn and Uranus, until it was 
:: determined that it was too minute to be planet 10.  

Astronomy magazine, Oct '82, discussion on Planet X on page 62.  
:: Both Uranus and Neptune follow irregular paths that 
:: observers can explain only by assuming the presence 
:: of an unknown body whose gravity tugs at the two planets.
:: Astronomers originally though Pluto might be the body 
:: perturbing its neighbors, but the combined mass of Pluto 
:: and its moon, Charon, is too small for such a role.

Newsweek magazine, June 28 '82, a short article on page 83.  
:: A "dark companion" could produce the unseen force that 
:: seems to tug at Uranus and Neptune, speeding them up at 
:: one point in their orbits and holding them back as they pass.
::   ...  Anderson thinks the best bet is a dark star orbiting at 
:: least 50 billion miles beyond Pluto, which is 3.6 billion miles 
:: from the sun.  It is most likely either a brown dwarf - a 
:: lightweight star that never attained the critical mass needed 
:: to ignite - or else a neutron star, the remnants of a normal sun 
:: that burned out and collapsed.  Other scientists suggest that 
:: the most likely cause of the orbital snags is a tenth planet 
:: 4 to 7 billion miles beyond Neptune.  A companion star 
:: would tug the outer planets, not just Uranus and Neptune, 
:: says Thomas Van Flavern of the U.S Naval Observatory.  

Washington Post, 31-Dec-1983, a front page story, 
Mystery Heavenly Body Discovered
:: A heavenly body possibly as large as the giant planet 
:: Jupiter and possibly so close to Earth that it would be 
:: part of this solar system has been found in the direction 
:: of the constellation Orion by an orbiting telescope aboard 
:: the U.S. infrared astronomical satellite.

US News World Report, Sept 10, 1984, article on page 74
:: Shrouded from the sun's light, mysteriously tugging at 
:: the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, is an unseen force that 
:: astronomers suspect may be Planet X - a 10th resident 
:: of the Earth's celestial neighborhood.  Last year, the 
:: infrared astronomical satellite (IRAS), circling in a polar 
:: orbit 560 miles from the Earth, detected heat from an 
:: object about 50 billion miles away that is now the subject 
:: of intense speculation.