Scientists have predicted the possibility of large planets the size of Jupiter or Uranus likely trapped or stuck at the edge of our solar system, far beyond the hypothetical planet X.
Such a planet from outside the solar system could be trapped in the Oort Cloud, an enormous spherical cloud that surrounds the solar system and extends for a distance of 3 light years, located about 30 trillion kilometers from the sun, this vast distance considered on the edge of the sun's gravity.
The researchers, including those from the French Center for Scientific Research CNRS, say there could be more interstellar objects at the edge of the solar system than previously thought. The scientists ran complex computer simulations to assess how solar systems tend to get rid of large planets, as well as how a planetary system might catch such "orphan" planets.
And while the discarded planet requires a "kinetic energy threshold" to leave its star's gravity, it also needs a large amount of energy for another star system to trap it or keep it stuck in its own gravitational belt, according to the British newspaper The Independent.
The simulation suggested that a small fraction of such "space encounters" might end up in the gravitational field of a star hunting a distant "orphan" planet and "claiming" it as its own. Scientists say this is likely to happen when such a planet in a star system drifts near the outer edge in the vicinity of the Oort Cloud.
With up to a tenth of the star's parent planets likely to be ejected into deep space, scientists say there is a 7 percent chance our solar system will capture an icy giant planet like Uranus in the Oort Cloud. The researchers estimate that "one in 200-3,000 stars could host a planet from the Oort Cloud."
However, they say this prediction is likely exaggerated because the estimate does not account for instability in the early stages of the solar system that could influence the birth of a star cluster, or strip the planet of transiting stars. Based on the analysis, scientists say the Oort cloud planets at the edge of the solar system are more likely to be part of a star system in space rather than being descendants of the sun.
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