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There’s one last place Planet Nine could be Hiding

Artist’s illustration of Planet Nine with the Sun and orbit of Neptune (ring) in the distance. (Credit: ESO/Tomruen/nagualdesign)

A study recently submitted to The Astronomical Journal continues to search for the elusive Planet Nine (also called Planet X), which is a hypothetical planet that potentially orbits in the outer reaches of the solar system and well beyond the orbit of the dwarf planet, Pluto.

The goal of this study, which is available on the pre-print server arXiv, was to narrow down the possible locations of Planet Nine and holds the potential to help researchers better understand the makeup of our solar system, along with its formation and evolutionary processes. So, what was the motivation behind this study regarding narrowing down the location of a potential Planet 9?

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Targeting ‘Undruggable’ Proteins Promises New Approach for Treating Neurodegenerative Diseases

Targeting 'undruggable' proteins promises new approach for treating neurodegenerative diseases
Proteins are nature’s polymers, governing biological processes at every level. A new study presents artificial proteins made using modern, precision polymers to intervene and alter natural processes towards a new way of developing therapeutics. Credit: Northwestern University/University of Wisconsin

Proteins are nature’s polymers, governing biological processes at every level. A new study presents artificial proteins made using modern, precision polymers to intervene and alter natural processes towards a new way of developing therapeutics.

Researchers led by Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have introduced a pioneering approach aimed at combating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Amyotrophic lateral scleros...

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Brightest and Fastest-Growing: Astronomers Identify Record-Breaking Quasar

Brightest and fastest-growing: astronomers identify record-breaking quasar
This artist’s impression shows the record-breaking quasar J059-4351, the bright core of a distant galaxy that is powered by a supermassive black hole. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, this quasar has been found to be the most luminous object known in the universe to date. The supermassive black hole, seen here pulling in surrounding matter, has a mass 17 billion times that of the sun and is growing in mass by the equivalent of another sun per day, making it the fastest-growing black hole ever known. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Using the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have characterized a bright quasar, finding it to be not only the brightest of its kind but also the most luminous object ever observed...

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Evidence of Geothermal Activity within Icy Dwarf Planets

Illustration points to three possibilities of subsurface geothermal processes that could explain how methane ended up on the surfaces of Eris and Makemake
ERIS AND MAKEMAKE INTERNAL PROCESSES

Webb telescope observes potentially young Methane deposits on surfaces of Eris, Makemake. A team co-led by Southwest Research Institute found evidence for hydrothermal or metamorphic activity within the icy dwarf planets Eris and Makemake, located in the Kuiper Belt. Methane detected on their surfaces has the tell-tale signs of warm or even hot geochemistry in their rocky cores, which is markedly different than the signature of methane from a comet.

“We see some interesting signs of hot times in cool places,” said SwRI’s Dr. Christopher Glein, an expert in planetary geochemistry and lead author of a paper about this discovery.

The Kuiper Belt is a vast donut-shaped region of icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune at the edge of the solar syste...

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