Planet X Hunt Radically Changed by Kuiper Belt Object 2012 VP113

Planet X revamped after the discovery of the Sedna-like object 2012 VP113?

Author:

Iorio

Abstract:

The recent discovery of the Sedna-like dwarf planet 2012 VP113 by Trujillo and Sheppard has revamped the old-fashioned hypothesis that a still unseen trans-Plutonian object of planetary size, variously dubbed over the years as Planet X, Tyche, Thelisto, may lurk in the distant peripheries of the Solar System. This time, the presence of a super-Earth with mass mX=2−15m⊕ at a distance dX≈200−300 astronomical units (AU) was proposed to explain the observed clustering of the arguments of perihelion ω near ω≈0∘ but not ω≈180∘ for Sedna, 2012 VP113 and other minor bodies of the Solar System with perihelion distances q>30 AU and semimajor axes a greater than 150 AU. Actually, such a scenario is strongly disfavored by the latest constraints Δϖ˙ on the anomalous perihelion precessions of some Solar System's planets obtained with the INPOP and EPM ephemerides. Indeed, they yield dX≳496−570 AU (mX=2m⊕), and dX≳970−1111 AU (mX=15m⊕). Much tighter constraints could be obtained in the near future from the New Horizons mission to Pluto.