Reassessing the origin and evolution of Ecliptic Comets in the Planet-9 Scenario

TL;DR

This study models the formation and evolution of trans-Neptunian objects with a revised, less massive Planet-9, showing it can explain observed orbital clustering and comet populations, guiding future Planet-9 searches.

Contribution

It proposes a lower-mass Planet-9 model that better matches observed trans-Neptunian object and comet orbital distributions, refining previous hypotheses.

Findings

A 7.5 Earth-mass Planet-9 aligns with observed TNO inclinations.

The model reproduces the number of ecliptic comets with D > 10 km.

Orbital clustering of distant Kuiper belt objects is explained by Planet-9.

Abstract

A group of newly observed extreme trans-Neptunian objects exhibit unexpected orbital confinement, characterized by the alignment of orbital angular momentum vectors and apsidal lines. It is proposed that an undiscovered giant planet, named Planet-9, exists in the solar system's outer regions and causes this clustering. Initial studies suggested Planet-9 could have a mass of 15 Earth masses. However, such a massive planet strongly interacts with scattered disk objects (SDOs; 50 < a < 1000 au) and influences the orbits of short-period comets, resulting in orbital inclinations inconsistent with observations. This study models the formation and long-term evolution of trans-Neptunian object populations and the Oort cloud during the solar system's dynamical instability, using revised parameters for Planet-9. Simulations assume Planet-9 has a mass of 7.5 Earth masses, an inclination of ~20 degrees, a semi-major axis of ~600 au, and an eccentricity of ~0.3. Results suggest a less massive Planet-9 aligns with observed trans-Neptunian object inclinations and the number of ecliptic comets (D > 10 km). Distant Kuiper belt objects with 40 < q < 100 au and 200 < a < 500 au, particularly with significant inclinations, are more likely to align apsidally with Planet-9, with an anti-aligned-to-aligned ratio of 0.5-0.7. Lower inclination objects (<20 degrees) exhibit significant apsidal anti-alignment, with an anti-aligned-to-aligned ratio of 2-4. These findings offer a new observational direction to refine the search for Planet-9.