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‘My very early morning jam sandwich usually nauseates people.’
In other words Mars, Venus, Earth, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.
You may have come across this or another popular an acronym for remembering the order of the planets in the solar system (even though many dispute Pluto is a planet at all.) When I was at school there were 9 planets, well then Pluto got knocked out and demoted to star status. Now two American scientists want to stick a ball back on the galactic snooker table and call it Tyche.
Tyche is a Gas Giant and in fitting with its neighbours has been given a Greek Name. Tyche after the Greek goddess of fortune.
Matese and Whitmire are scientists from Louisiana-Lafayette University and according to Universe Today; they have been working on their theory for over 4 decades. On 26th of April 2010 they published a paper entitled ‘Evidence of a Jovian Mass Solar Companion in the Ord Cloud.’ The document explored whether the existence of such a planet could be the reason for localised long-distance comets forming a cluster band rather than taking random paths.
Other scientists are sceptical about the theory calling it un-statistically sound and the evidence ‘subtle’.
The planet is said to be 1.3 Trillion miles from the sun and have a temperature of -73 degrees C. A bit too cold for a visit then! The Daily Mail claims that it could be ‘the largest planet in the solar system’ and ‘up to 4 times the size of Jupiter.’ Tyche may not have been born in our solar system but in fact pulled in by gravity.
The question on many people’s lips is ‘if it’s so big why has it taken this long to find it?’ Well it is apparently located in the Ord Cloud which is a long long way off. Don’t forget this is only a theory, so whether Tyche really exists or is just a load of hot air, time will tell...
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