Planet X revamped after the discovery of the Sedna-like object 2012 VP113_{113}?

preprint2014arXivOpen access

Abstract

The recent discovery of the Sedna-like dwarf planet 2012 VP113_{\rm 113} 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⊕m_{\rm X} = 2-15m_{\oplus} at a distance dX≈200−300d_{\rm X}\approx 200-300 astronomical units (AU) was proposed to explain the observed clustering of the arguments of perihelion ωω near ω≈0∘ω\approx 0^{\circ} but not ω≈180∘ω\approx 180^{\circ} for Sedna, 2012 VP113_{\rm 113} and other minor bodies of the Solar System with perihelion distances q>30q>30 AU and semimajor axes a>150a>150 AU. Actually, such a scenario is strongly disfavored by the latest constraints Δϖ˙Δ\dot\varpi on the anomalous perihelion precessions of some Solar System's planets obtained with the INPOP and EPM ephemerides. Indeed, they yield dX≳496−570d_{\rm X}\gtrsim 496-570 AU (mX=2m⊕m_{\rm X}=2m_{\oplus}), and dX≳970−1111d_{\rm X}\gtrsim 970-1111 AU (mX=15m⊕m_{\rm X} = 15 m_{\oplus}). Much tighter constraints could be obtained in the near future from the New Horizons mission to Pluto.

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