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A 3π Search for Planet Nine at 3.4 μm with WISE and NEOWISE
Description: The recent "Planet Nine" hypothesis has led to many observational and archival searches for this giant planet proposed to orbit the Sun at hundreds of astronomical units. While trans-Neptunian object searches are typically conducted in the optical, models suggest Planet Nine could be self-luminous and potentially bright enough at ~3-5 μm to be detected by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). These authors have previously demonstrated a Planet Nine search methodology based on time-resolved WISE coadds, allowing them to detect moving objects much fainter than would be possible using single-frame extractions. In this present work, they extend our 3.4 μm (W1) search to cover more than three-quarters of the sky and incorporate four years of WISE observations spanning a seven-year time period. [Source: Astronomical Journal]
URL: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/aaae70/meta
Availability: Summary
Source: Astronomical Journal
Publish Date: 4/1/2018
Reading Level: Expert
Page Length:  

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