Our solar system may soon have a ninth planet

Researchers from the University of Michigan have recently discovered a new planet that exists in our solar system. This newly discovered "dwarf" planet, dubbed as 2014 UZ224 is just beyond the orbit of Pluto. Astronomers believe that the solar system may soon have a ninth planet.

The newly discovered planet, 2014 UZ224 is approximately 330 miles across, which is much smaller than Ceres, another dwarf planet which has a diameter is 580 miles. This makes the new planet remarkably small and it also fits the definition of a dwarf planet, as considered by NASA.

Scientists are still not sure about the exact orbital path of this new dwarf planet but they believe that a single orbit around the sun would be roughly 1100 Earth years. Moreover, the distance of the new dwarf planet and the Sun is approximately 8.5 billion miles.

The team of researchers from the University of Michigan, led by David Gerdes found this new dwarf planet, using "Dark Energy Camera (DECam)," a specialized camera that Gerdes developed. The scientific community is hopeful that this specialized camera will explain the role of dark energy that is leading to an accelerated expansion of the universe.

So far, five dwarf planets have been recognized in the solar system, namely, Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake. But, scientists feel that there are more out there that are yet to be discovered.

It was previously believed that beyond Pluto, the solar system is composed of icy small objects. But now studies emphasise that the area houses a ninth planet that is much larger than the Earth.

According to astronomer Mike Brown who discovered Eris in collaboration with Konstantin Batygin, the orbital discrepancy beyond Neptune is due to the presence of an unseen planet that is about 10 times the size of Earth.

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Fresh data reveals no sign of bands around Jupiter

After scientists recently reported exciting new discoveries about Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft sent images of the planet taken during a trek from its north to south poles last month. The images were released recently.

Juno made the journey on Aug. 27 at a range of about 2,500 miles above the planet’s clouds. NASA wrote on its website that the JunoCam transmitted six megabytes of data from its six-hour journey. The early results have produced fresh data on the planet that have scientists excited.

It’s bluer in color up there than other parts of the planet, and there are a lot of storms. Also, there is no sign of the latitudinal bands or zone and belts -- this image is hardly recognizable as Jupiter. The clouds have shadows, possibly indicating that the clouds are at a higher altitude than other features.

NASA said all eight of Juno’s science instruments collected data. Joining the mission was the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), supplied by the Italian Space Agency. The JIRAM transmitted infrared images of the planet’s poles. The JIRAM is said to be the first of its kind to see the southern aurora on Jupiter

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