Did you know our solar system might have had an extra planet? Scientists believe a mysterious ninth planet once existed but got kicked out long ago! This "lost" planet could have been tossed into deep space during the early chaotic days of our solar system when massive planets were still shifting around. Jupiter or Saturn may have used their strong gravity to fling it away, sending it drifting into the unknown. If this planet is still out there, it could be wandering somewhere far beyond our reach. So, was our solar system supposed to have one more planet? Looks like the universe had other plans! Animation is created by Bright Side.
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FunTranscript
00:00Let's see, there's Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Phaeton, Jupiter, wait hold on, what
00:12Phaeton am I talking about?
00:14Well, let's see.
00:16It was the beginning of the 19th century, and the asteroid belt hadn't been discovered
00:21yet.
00:22In the year 1801, one man named Giuseppe Piazzi spotted the largest asteroid in the Solar
00:28System, Ceres.
00:30At that time, people believed that there was a planet orbiting between Mars and Jupiter,
00:36and Ceres seemed to fit the bill.
00:39But the next year, another astronomer, Heinrich Olbers, found one more space body following
00:44a similar orbit.
00:46It was an asteroid which was later called Pallas.
00:49This discovery helped Olbers to figure out that these two space objects could be fragments
00:54of a planet.
00:56The discovery of two more asteroids, Vesta and Juno, seemed to confirm this theory.
01:02It was believed that the planet, which was named Phaeton in the 20th century, appeared
01:07in the early days of the Solar System and was later destroyed, and its debris formed
01:12the asteroid belt.
01:13Olbers' idea was called the disruption theory.
01:17To astronomers at that time, it seemed obvious that the planet once collided with a large
01:21space object, which led to its demise.
01:26The most likely candidate was Nemesis, a hypothetical red or brown dwarf orbiting our
01:31Sun.
01:32Another theory claimed that Phaeton could have gone through an internal cataclysm, which
01:37could have broken the planet into pieces.
01:40There was one more idea – Phaeton could have come too close to Jupiter and got torn
01:44apart by the gas giant's immense gravity.
01:49These days, though, astronomers don't believe in the disruption theory anymore.
01:53A new idea has replaced it.
01:55It's known as the accretion theory.
01:58It claims that the asteroid belt is all that is left of the protoplanetary disk.
02:03Supposedly, this disk had been originally orbiting the Sun, even before the planets
02:08formed.
02:09Unfortunately, because of Jupiter's gravitational forces, it never managed to coalesce into
02:14a planet.
02:16But what is this asteroid belt we keep talking about?
02:19This region is located between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars.
02:23Tens of asteroids and even minor planets are found there.
02:27Some of them can sometimes migrate or even get thrown out of the asteroid belt to the
02:31outer Solar System.
02:34The four largest asteroids in that area are Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygieia.
02:41They make up half the mass of the entire belt.
02:44As for the rest of the mass, countless smaller bodies make up for it.
02:49In loads of sci-fi movies about space, the main character gets into an asteroid belt
02:54and has to try hard to get away from countless rocks threatening to smash their spacecraft.
03:00Well, it has nothing to do with the real thing.
03:04Even though there are thousands of asteroids in this region, they're so widely spaced
03:08that the chance of collision is next to nothing.
03:11Hey, but it's a movie, right?
03:14Anyway, when the asteroid belt was forming, some objects started to come together and
03:20form what we know as protoplanets.
03:24But the gravitational pull that was caused by the formation of Jupiter made such collisions
03:28too rough, and instead of forming large space bodies like planets, asteroids shuddered.
03:36Astronomers think that as a result of such collisions, more than 99.99% of the original
03:41mass of the asteroid belt was lost in the first 100 million years of the history of
03:47the Solar System.
03:50Only the largest asteroids have enough gravity to get a spherical shape.
03:55Small ones are just often piles of rubble loosely held together by gravity.
04:00And the tiniest objects in the asteroid belt resemble dust, so small they are.
04:05And all these objects, giant and tiny, orbit the Sun.
04:10There are several types of asteroids, depending on their composition and albedo, which is
04:14the proportion of light or radiation reflected by a surface.
04:18The main types are carbon asteroids, which have a very dark surface, silicon ones, you
04:24can also call them stone asteroids, and metal ones.
04:29The first two types account for around 75% and 17% of asteroids that we know about.
04:37For the first time, the asteroid belt was crossed by a spacecraft in 1972.
04:42It was the Pioneer 10 space probe.
04:44The spaceship managed to refute the theory that the belt was filled with dust that could
04:49easily damage all gadgets on board.
04:51It didn't happen.
04:53And since that time, 8 more probes have traveled through the asteroid belt.
04:58And now I'm gonna tell you some cool facts about the Solar System itself.
05:02Try to count how many of these facts you've known before and write your answer down in
05:06the comments below!
05:09The Solar System is a staggering 4.5 billion years old.
05:14Scientists came to this conclusion after studying meteorites, the oldest material they managed
05:18to find.
05:20But our Solar System isn't the only one in the Milky Way galaxy.
05:25The galaxy we live in houses about 100 billion star systems.
05:29And if it's just our galaxy alone, what can we say about the whole Universe?
05:36Our Sun is also insanely massive.
05:38Here's the proof – 99.86% of all the mass of the Solar System is the mass of the Sun.
05:45In particular, hydrogen and helium that it's made of.
05:49The remaining 0.14% is mostly the mass of the Solar System's 8 planets.
05:56By the way, contrary to popular misconception, outer space isn't a perfect vacuum.
06:02It contains not only stars and planets, but also clouds of interstellar dust, space plasma,
06:08and cosmic rays.
06:10Those are atom fragments dashing from the outskirts of the Solar System.
06:15One phenomenon astronauts should worry about while exploring space is cold welding.
06:21If two pieces of the same kind of metal touch in space, they bond and get permanently stuck
06:27together.
06:28Kinda like galaxy glue.
06:30It doesn't happen on Earth since water and air keep pieces separate.
06:36You can see solar eclipses even though the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun, it's
06:41also 400 times closer to Earth, so it's perfectly capable of obscuring the star.
06:47But in 600 million years, the Moon won't be able to block the Sun completely because
06:52of the satellite's changing orbit.
06:57Beyond the orbit of Neptune, there is the mysterious Kuiper Belt, filled with massy
07:02icy objects.
07:03The most curious thing about this space formation, though, is that the scientists failed to explain
07:08the pattern of its movement.
07:10The only explanation they have is that Neptune might be hiding a ginormous planet.
07:17This hypothetical planet has already got the name Planet Nine, and all we have to do is
07:22wait until its existence is confirmed… or not.
07:27The ocean on Jupiter is larger than any body of water on other planets of the Solar System.
07:32But it's not the ocean you think about.
07:35The one on Jupiter isn't made of water.
07:38This mesmerizing thing consists of metallic hydrogen.
07:42And its depth is around 25,000 miles, which is actually almost the same as the circumference
07:48of Earth.
07:51You got to know about beautiful Saturn's rings in the 1600s.
07:55But now we know that Saturn isn't the only ringed planet.
07:59All the giant gas planets – Uranus, Neptune, and Jupiter – have rings of their own, but
08:04they're thin and almost impossible to see.
08:08As for Mars, Venus, and Earth, they're made of rocky material and have no rings.
08:14At the same time, Saturn's moon Rhea might have a ring system consisting of three narrow
08:19bands.
08:20If astronomers manage to confirm it, it'll be the first time for people to discover rings
08:25around a moon.
08:28And Mars might get a set of rings of its own in the next 70 million years.
08:33The Red Planet's largest moon, called Phobos, is orbiting closer and closer to the planet.
08:39One day it's likely to get broken apart by the gravitational pull of the Red Planet
08:44and turn into a ring that can last for millions of years.
08:48And another cool fact about Mars – you've probably heard of methane gas, a byproduct
08:53of such natural processes as volcanic activity and cow emissions.
08:58Anyways, this gas is not only a part of the Martian atmosphere, but also the thing that
09:03confuses astronomers to no end.
09:06The thing is that the volume of methane on Mars keeps wavering, and scientists just can't
09:12figure out where it might be coming from.
09:14Can there be life on Mars?
09:16Can there be cows on Mars?
09:19That's it for today!
09:20So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
09:25friends!
09:26Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!