Status Report

Persistent Evidence of a Jovian Mass Solar Companion in the Oort Cloud

By SpaceRef Editor
April 27, 2010
Filed under , ,
Persistent Evidence of a Jovian Mass Solar Companion in the Oort Cloud
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We present an updated dynamical and statistical analysis of outer Oort cloud cometary evidence suggesting the sun has a wide-binary Jovian mass companion. The results support a conjecture that there exists a companion of mass ~ 1-4 M_Jup orbiting in the innermost region of the outer Oort cloud. Our most restrictive prediction is that the orientation angles of the orbit normal in galactic coordinates are centered on the galactic longitude of the ascending node Omega = 319 degree and the galactic inclination i = 103 degree (or the opposite direction) with an uncertainty in the normal direction subtending ~ 2% of the sky. A Bayesian statistical analysis suggests that the probability of the companion hypothesis is comparable to or greater than the probability of the null hypothesis of a statistical fluke. Such a companion could also have produced the detached Kuiper Belt object Sedna. The putative companion could be easily detected by the recently launched Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).

John J. Matese, Daniel P. Whitmire (Submitted on 26 Apr 2010)

Comments: 41 pages, 9 figures, submitted to ICARUS

Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)

Cite as: arXiv:1004.4584v1 [astro-ph.EP]

Submission history
From: Daniel Whitmire Ph.D.
[v1] Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:00:59 GMT (570kb)

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