Cosmologists in Search of Planet Nine: the Case for CMB Experiments

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of mm-wavelength cosmology experiments to detect Planet Nine by identifying its unique signals amidst foreground asteroids, emphasizing the need for high-resolution, sensitive telescopes and frequent observations.

Contribution

It proposes a method to detect Planet Nine using mm-wavelength experiments, highlighting the importance of high angular resolution and sensitivity to distinguish it from asteroids.

Findings

Planet Nine could be detected as a ~30 mJy source at 1 mm if it is Neptune-sized and 700 AU away.

Foreground asteroids pose a confusion challenge but can be distinguished by their rapid motion.

High-resolution, frequent measurements are necessary for detection and characterization.

Abstract

Cosmology experiments at mm-wavelengths can detect Planet Nine if it is the size of Neptune, has an effective temperature of 40 K, and is 700 AU from the Sun. It would appear as a ~30 mJy source at 1 mm with an annual parallax of ~5 arcmin. The challenge is to distinguish it from the approximately 4000 foreground asteroids brighter than 30 mJy. Fortunately, these asteroids are known to the Minor Planet Center and can be identified because they move across a resolution element in a matter of hours, orders of magnitude faster than Planet Nine. If Planet Nine is smaller, colder, and/or more distant than expected, then it could be as faint as 1 mJy at 1 mm. There are roughly $10^6$ asteroids this bright and many are unknown, making current cosmology experiments confusion limited for moving sources. Nonetheless, it may still be possible to find the proverbial needle in the haystack using a matched filter. This would require mm telescopes with high angular resolution and high sensitivity in order to alleviate confusion and to enable the identification of moving sources with relatively short time baselines. Regardless of its mm flux density, searching for Planet Nine would require frequent radio measurements for large swaths of the sky, including the ecliptic and Galactic plane. Even if Planet Nine had already been detected by other means, measuring its mm-flux would constrain its internal energy budget, and therefore help resolve the mystery of Uranus and Neptune, which have vastly different internal heat.