🛸 Planet Nine Sentinel: Deep Archive Mining Pipeline

Principal Investigator: Jeffrey S. Pittman
Project Status: Active / 1 Verified Unknown Object Discovered Date: November 22, 2025
Target Region: Taurus-Eridanus Resonance Zone (RA 30° to 100°)

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🎯 Executive Summary

This project performs a deep-survey data mining operation to locate Planet Nine candidates in the high-probability orbit zone predicted by Batygin & Brown (2016) and refined by Siraj/Tremaine (2025).

By cross-referencing deep archival imaging from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) (Mag limit ~24.5) against the Pan-STARRS DR2 catalog (Mag limit ~22.5) and the Minor Planet Center (MPC) database, the pipeline filters out static stars and known asteroids to isolate "Bright Ghosts"—objects that appear in deep imaging but are missing from reference maps.

🚨 DISCOVERY REPORT: Object Alpha-1 (The "Alpha Ghost")

Status: ✅ PHYSICALLY CONFIRMED (Visual Verification in Raw Telemetry)
Classification: Unidentified Solar System Body / Extreme TNO Candidate

This object was detected by the pipeline and subsequently verified by manual forensic analysis of raw FITS imagery from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO).

• Discovery Date: 2018-11-13 (MJD 58435.238)
• Time: 05:42:46 UTC
• Coordinates: RA 54.780134 | Dec -10.098003
• Apparent Magnitude: ~22.5 (r-band)
• Verification Data:
  • Source: NOIRLab Science Archive
  • Instrument: DECam (Blanco 4m Telescope)
  • File ID: c4d_181113_054246_ooi_r_v1.fits.fz
  • Location in Frame: Extension 19, Pixel [1249, 3994]
• Forensic Checks:
  • Gaia DR3: Confirmed Visual Void (No static star exists at these coordinates).
  • MPC Database: Confirmed No Match (No known asteroid was present).
  • Raw Imagery: Distinct Point Source Function (PSF) confirmed in single-epoch exposure.

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⚠️ High-Priority Candidates (Unverified)

1. Candidate "Alpha Twin" (Possible Epoch 1 of Alpha-1)

• Hypothesis: This may be the same object as Alpha-1, detected 62 days earlier. Linking these two would establish an orbit.
• Coordinates: RA 54.761989 | Dec -10.066272
• Date: 2018-09-11 (MJD 58372)
• Status: PENDING.
  • Note: Detection occurred during daytime in Chile, implying the data source is the Subaru Telescope (Hawaii). Verification requires access to the SMOKA (Subaru Mitaka Okayama Kiso Archive) or Hyper Suprime-Cam Public Data Release.

2. Candidate Iota-1

• Sector: Iota (Deep Eridanus)
• Coordinates: RA 70.226337 | Dec -19.973466
• Date: 2014-12-25 (MJD 57016)
• Status: Unverified.
  • Object has a high "Star Probability" (0.995) but sits in a dense star field. Requires further motion analysis to rule out a background variable star.

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📉 Scientific Constraints

Outside of these anomalies, this survey provides a strong negative constraint: No Planet Nine candidate brighter than Magnitude 22.5 exists in the primary resonance track (Sectors Alpha–Xi). This suggests Planet Nine is likely fainter (Mag 23–24) or located further along the track in the Southern Turn (Phase 4).

🛠 Methodology

1. Deep Search: Queries the NOIRLab Source Catalog (NSC DR2) for objects with rmag > 22.5 and class_star > 0.8.
2. Cross-Match: Verifies candidates against the Pan-STARRS DR2 API to filter out static background stars.
3. Forensics: Survivors are visually inspected to rule out diffraction spikes and artifacts.
4. Vetting: Final candidates are checked against the MPC database to rule out known asteroids.
5. FITS Verification: Valid candidates are retrieved from the NOIRLab Astro Data Archive and processed using astropy to confirm physical presence on the CCD.

💻 Usage

1. Install Dependencies

pip install pandas numpy astropy matplotlib requests