Hypothetical: Specific Rogue planet. When could be its discovery date given its orbital, size, and albedo parameters?

General physics and astronomy discussions not directly related to Celestia
Avatar
Topic author
PlutonianEmpire M
Posts: 1374
Joined: 09.09.2004
Age: 39
With us: 20 years 1 month
Location: MinneSNOWta
Contact:

Hypothetical: Specific Rogue planet. When could be its discovery date given its orbital, size, and albedo parameters?

Post #1by PlutonianEmpire » 04.06.2021, 14:54

Hi all, I'm in need of a plausible detail for some of my fiction I write. I have a rogue planet with a set of orbital parameters as follows, looping around Sol:

Code: Select all

Orbit {
     Epoch 2458860.74038
     RefPlane "Ecliptic"
     PericenterDist 0.9
     Period 106.73035377261823
     Eccentricity 1.04
     Inclination 32.8
     AscendingNode 256.56103
     ArgOfPericenter 306.41318
}

So, the assumed SMA would be -22.5, with a Perihelion date of January 12, 2020.

Rogue Planet has two moons, with an external barycenter with the outer one, all with the following parameters:

Planet:
Radius 5469.6462 km
Mass 0.60543 M_earth
AlbedoBond 0.829
AlbedoGeom 0.935477

Inner Moon:
Radius 1326.212 km
Mass 0.005454 M_Earth
AlbedoBond 0.119
AlbedoGeom 0.1428
SemiMajorAxis 98304.460 km
Period 4.542 Days

Outer Moon:
Radius 2258.295 km
Mass 0.027646 M_earth
AlbedoBond 0.147
AlbedoGeom 0.1764
SemiMajorAxis 302025.266 km
Period 25.626

With that in mind, the Rogue Planet reaches apparent Magnitude 15 at 88 AU from Earth on Halloween of 1976, slightly dimmer than Pluto's AppMag of 14.5 that same year, when Charon was discovered.

Now, take into accout all the sky surveys and exploration that were operating throughout the 20th century. Between 1976 and 2020, what might be decently realistic discovery dates for Rogue Planet and its moons?
Terraformed Pluto: Now with New Horizons maps! :D

Avatar
Gurren Lagann
Posts: 434
Joined: 31.01.2018
Age: 18
With us: 6 years 9 months
Location: State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Post #2by Gurren Lagann » 04.06.2021, 15:43

The rogue planet itself would had likely been discovered in the 1970s or 1980s, with the discovery survey likely being the Catalina Sky Survey (limiting magnitude: +21.5). Its moons would had likely been found at around the time Hubble was first operational, so around the early-to-mid 1990s.
"The tomorrow we're trying to reach is not a tomorrow you had decided on!"
- Simon the Digger
"Nothing is impossible for me, as long I'm determinated to keep moving forward!"
"If other people aren't going to do it, I'm going to do it myself!"
- Me (Gurren)

Current major projects:
- Aur Cir
- Cel+
- Project Sisyphus
- Populating the Local Group
- An galaxy generator

Avatar
Topic author
PlutonianEmpire M
Posts: 1374
Joined: 09.09.2004
Age: 39
With us: 20 years 1 month
Location: MinneSNOWta
Contact:

Post #3by PlutonianEmpire » 05.06.2021, 03:49

Nice. What might be some conceivable space missions to the planet? (Probes, orbiters, flybys, or even landers?)
Terraformed Pluto: Now with New Horizons maps! :D


Return to “Physics and Astronomy”