[QUOTE=Uncwilly;470696]It seems that there is a rumble going around that there may 'soon' be an announced confirmation. The vibe I got is that the time scale is (weeks to) months with n<6.[/QUOTE]BTW, my best guess on the delay of the announcement is that, the astronomer that is heading the effort is having to wait for the earth to move enough for the parallax for the 3rd image in the sequence. Planet 9 would be far enough away and moving so slowly that parallax would be the key to defining its orbit.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;470848]BTW, my best guess on the delay of the announcement is that, the astronomer that is heading the effort is having to wait for the earth to move enough for the parallax for the 3rd image in the sequence. Planet 9 would be far enough away and moving so slowly that parallax would be the key to defining its orbit.[/QUOTE]There's been a vigorous debate on the Planet 9 hypothesis, one Ethan Siegel being a notable skeptic. One of the reasons given for skepticism is selection bias in Kuiper Belt objects. See, e.g.

[url=http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/new-haul-distant-worlds-casts-doubt-planet-nine]New haul of distant worlds casts doubt on Planet Nine[/url]
My favorite quote from the article:
[quote]“Perhaps the most attractive thing about the Planet Nine hypothesis is that it has a well-defined observational resolution,” Batygin says. “It’s either there or not.”[/quote]This thing is thought to be [i]way[/i] out there, so would be [i]incredibly[/i] faint. An actual photographic image would be a great achievement.

[QUOTE=kladner;470841]Shout out to LaurV. Were you in on the digital scene when this happened?[/QUOTE]
Thanks. You forgot the link.
See a [URL="http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?p=470913"]post in my blog[/URL].

This is why we keep archives folks:
[url]https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6991[/url]

[QUOTE=LaurV;470919]Thanks. You forgot the link.
See a [URL="http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?p=470913"]post in my blog[/URL].[/QUOTE]
Thanks for mending my lapse. Thanks even more for the accounts and photos.
:thumbs-up:I am in awe!:thumbs-up:

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[QUOTE=rogue;471889]
[URL="https://home.cern/about/updates/2017/11/how-much-does-kilogram-weigh"]How much does a kilogram weigh?[/URL]

[/QUOTE]
Interesting!

The short answer would be 1000 gram :razz:.

Long answer:
Humans have defined the second and meter very accurately:
1 second = 9,192,631,770 transitions between the two levels of (ground state and at 0K) of the caesium-133 atom.

and the meter is derived/defined from the second and the speed of light in a vacuum (a universal constant)
1 meter = length of the path travelled by light in a vacuum in exactly 1/299,792,458 second.

You would think it would be possible to define the kg or gram using a similar technique. A xxxxxx amount of y atoms would come to mind (with for instance Carbon-12 with unified atomic mass (12u) and Avogadro's number for the amount of atoms). As Avogadro's number is defined as the amount of molecules/atoms in 12 gram of Carbon-12. As I understand it, this what they are trying to achieve with a "Silicon sphere kg".

Another approach is using E=mc^2 , as we already have defined c (the speed of light), but we would need something for E (energy). They are now proposing to use E=hv (Planck constant x frequency) or similar technique to define mass in terms of the Planck constant. But then we would need to define/measure the Planck constant first. As I understand it this is the approach they are now pursuing. The new measurement of the Planck constant to 13 parts per billion would meet the requirement for defining a 'new' kg and tying it to a universal constant.

[URL]https://www.nist.gov/physical-measurement-laboratory/plancks-constant[/URL]