March 15, 2019 8-10PM

Event Type: Lecture and Stargazing
Title: Planet Nine from Outer Space
Lecturer: Mike Brown
Position: Professor
Institution:Caltech
Abstract:
While the occasional "Bring back Pluto!" t-shirt can still be found in the used-shirt bin at the store, most of the world has moved on after the raucous debates about the status of Pluto and its fellow dwarf planets. Astronomers, however, have been continuing to study the outer edges of the solar system to try to understand all that this region can tell us. One of the most startling revelations of the past decade is that there is strong evidence that there is a distant planet lurking in the distant solar system. This undiscovered object is estimated to be 5000 times more massive than Pluto, making it the true ninth planet of the solar system. I'll talk about the history of outer solar system discoveries, the evidence that led us to hypothesize the existence of this planet, and the prospects for directly spotting Planet Nine in -- we hope -- the very near future.