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| Artist’s impression of the Cassini spacecraft performing the Saturn Orbit Insertion procedure |
It seems that the reports regarding the deviations in the orbit of Cassini are false. In a statement by mission managers and orbit determination experts at JPL, Cassini has not been experiencing the slight deviations in its orbit, as was reported a few days back. So, this post supersedes the previous post about Cassini’s perturbations, which were in fact, shown to be incorrect.
In fact, there have been no unusual deviations since the spacecraft’s arrival at the Saturnian system in 2004. So, Planet Nine’s apparent gravitational signature is not really there.
Ever since the announcement that a ninth planet may be orbiting the Sun beyond the orbit of Neptune, scientists have been looking for some observational proof of the planet’s existence. So far it has been unsuccessful. Despite the latest setback, however, I firmly believe that if a planet is in fact out there beyond the orbit of Neptune, we will discover it sooner, rather than later.
Source: JPL
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