System of Long-Period Comets as Indicator of the Large Planetary Body on the Periphery of the Solar System

We study some particular aspects of the hypothesis about the existence of a highly inclined massive celestial body at a distance of 250-400 au. The analysis covers 1249 long-period comets (LPCs) observed up to 2017, having q and Q greater than 0.1 au and 30 au respectively. A plane or planes around which the concentration of perihelia occurs have been searched. The search for such planes has been carried out for groups of LPCs, separated by clusters in T (discovery date), e, q, H (absolute magnitude), Q, 1/aori ("original" a), etc. In almost all cases two types of planes or zones have been detected: the first one is very close to the ecliptic, the other one has the parameters: ip=86°, Ωp=271°. According to the tested hypothesis there is a massive perturber at a distance of 250-400 au from the Sun. We show that the number of aphelia and distant nodes of long-period comet orbits within this interval (250-400 au) significantly exceeds the expected value. The distributions of Q and distant comet nodes may signal the presence of a massive perturber near 300 au. We have estimated that the most probable orbital elements of the hypothetical planet are a=339±34 au, e=0.16±0.02, ω=57°±15°, Ω=272.°7±3°, i=86°±2°. To test the stability of such an orbit as well as its influence on other planets, a model of solar system that includes only the Jovian planets and the putative perturber was integrated for 1 billion years, assuming that the mass of the highly inclined perturber is about 10 Earth masses.

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Opracowanie rekordu ze środków MNiSW, umowa Nr 461252 w ramach programu "Społeczna odpowiedzialność nauki" - moduł: Popularyzacja nauki i promocja sportu (2020)