Orbital Clustering in the Distant Solar System
Orbital Clustering in the Distant Solar System
复制标题
遥远太阳系中的轨道集群
作者：
M. Brown;K. Batygin
最远的柯伊伯带天体(KBO)似乎聚集在近日点的经度和轨道的极点位置。到目前为止，对于这些明显的星系团的原因，只有两种说法，要么是观测偏差的影响，要么是一颗遥远的巨行星存在于被称为九号行星的偏心倾斜轨道上。为了确定观测偏差是否可能是这些明显星团的原因，我们开发了一种严格的方法来量化近日点经度和轨道极点位置观测中的观测偏差。根据现在对偏差的更全面的理解，我们计算出这些遥远的KBO在近日点经度和轨道极点位置上被观察到的强烈聚集的概率只有0.2%。虽然有一天可能会找到九号行星以外的其他解释，但这种星团的统计意义现在很难被忽视。
The most distant Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) appear to be clustered in longitude of perihelion and in orbital pole position. To date, the only two suggestions for the cause of these apparent clusterings have been either the effects of observational bias or the existence of a distant giant planet in an eccentric inclined orbit known as Planet Nine. To determine if observational bias can be the cause of these apparent clusterings, we develop a rigorous method of quantifying the observational biases in the observations of longitude of perihelion and orbital pole position. From this now more complete understanding of the biases, we calculate that the probability that these distant KBOs would be clustered as strongly as observed in both longitude of perihelion and in orbital pole position is only 0.2%. While explanations other than Planet Nine may someday be found, the statistical significance of this clustering is now difficult to discount.