ALMA observatory could detect previously unknown objects in the solar system or close to it. It is possible that one of them is a super-Earth or even brown dwarf.
The Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) observatory is located at an altitude of over 5,000 meters in Chile. Ultimately, ALMA will consist of 66 antennas, together performing observations at wavelengths from 84 to 720 GHz. ALMA is currently in the final stages of construction and from 2013 he has been performing astronomical observations. Some recent published results relate to the detection of cool objects in the environment of the solar system. Two scientific papers have been prepared by an international team of scientists led by Chalmers University of Technology from Onsala in Sweden.
In the first publication, the researchers indicate the detection of cool facility, located near the two stars in the system Alpha Centauri (parts A and B). This may be a new component of the (then would be named Alpha Centauri D), it can also be a facility located much closer, perhaps in the solar system. This object may be a dwarf planet orbiting at a distance of about 100 astronomical units from the Sun, a super-Earth with a radius about 1.5 times greater than the radius of Earth, orbiting at an average distance of about 300 astronomical units from the sun or located much further away (20,000 units astronomical, or about 0.3 light years) cool brown dwarf.
In the second publication the same team announces the detection of previously unknown cold object in the solar system. Due to limitations ALMA it is currently not possible to determine the distance to it, and consequently actual size. It is known, however, that it is a facility located in the outer solar system or beyond, beyond the gravitational influence of the sun. If the object moves around the sun in the area about 10-25 astronomical units, then this is a large asteroid with a diameter of 200-900 km. This would be one of the largest currently known objects from the group Centaurus. If the object would be located much farther away, at a distance of about 2,500 astronomical units, then it would probably be the size of Neptune. Further observations are needed to accurately determine motion and parallax these objects.
It is worth noting that thanks to the WISE mission is already known that in the solar system and its surroundings there are no unknown planet the size of Jupiter, at least for a distance of 82,000 astronomical units , Saturn to a distance of 28,000 astronomical units and a brown dwarf size of Jupiter to approximately 26,000 astronomical units.
It is very likely that in the outer solar system are hidden as yet unknown objects. It is not known whether any of them are larger objects the size of planets. The discovery of such an object will alter our perception of the solar system and the processes that formed it.
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