<p>The Indian Astronomer V. B. Ketkar (1853-1930) predicted TWO trans Neptune planets in 1911 in a letter to Bulletin of Astronomical Society of France in May 1911, page 277. Laplace Laws of satellites of Jupiter were modified and applied by Ketkar for arriving at this results.</p>

<p>The first planet (Brahma) discussed there is subsequently discovered as Pluto. The second planet (Vishnu) has not yet been discovered, and is currently referred to as "Planet X" by Astronomers. </p>

<p>Can one calculate the current location and observe it?</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/WPDKG.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/WPDKG.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-03T01:59:59.133Z
The image appears to be from [Chhabra et al. 1984](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1984InJHS..19...18C/abstract). [Wikipedia:Planets beyond Neptune](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planets_beyond_Neptune) footnote links to [this PDF](http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/rawdataupload/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005abd_18.pdf).
Mike G
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-03T04:30:21.363Z
You are right about Mr Chhabra. I have an access to Original notes from Mr V B Ketkar , about whose work J G Chhabra, S D Sharma, and Manju Khanna-Department of Physics, Panjabi University,Patiala-INDIA, have published this in Indian Journal of History of Science 1984. However I have not heard any further development on the works of Mr V B ketkar. Hence I have taken up the subject.
Mohan Mone
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-03T12:54:19.913Z
It's generally accepted that Pluto cannot account for the disturbance of the orbit as observed for Neptue - even when it was found where predicted. As such it is not even planet IX and its discovery is more a chance that it was there where it was rather than an effect of a correct prediction. More recently there are some interesting papers which discuss the similarity of orbital parameters of various TNOs and infer some common cause which hypothetically could be a planetX (I don't have references at hand currently)
planetmaker
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-04T01:02:34.883Z
@MikeG for some reason I can't access the link for that source for the image. Can you mention the title and author so I can search for another version? Thanks!
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-04T01:04:59.137Z
@MohanMone With only those numbers it is certainly possible to calculate a rough position along the ecliptic, there's an epoch, longitude and a semi-major axis. But that's not a complete set of orbital elements so the assumption has to be made that it's somewhere near the ecliptic and a search would have to start there, which may not be the case. For example Pluto's inclination is 17 degrees. Also, I've made some small edits to your post, feel free to roll back or edit further.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-04T01:07:34.890Z
I just saw [this](https://books.google.com/books?id=5unEQa2wsykC&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&dq=Indian+Astronomer+V.+B.+Ketkar&source=bl&ots=vu_XIDns2V&sig=ACfU3U2mVbjDGe2-URxJxkfMfiBoVhrdeQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJ1Kykzv_nAhUGQd4KHcYwDUAQ6AEwAHoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=Indian%20Astronomer%20V.%20B.%20Ketkar&f=false)
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-04T05:09:07.413Z
@uhoh I can send you the paper which was published in 1984. Send me email address.
Mohan Mone
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-04T05:30:19.557Z
@MohanMone Thank you very much for the offer! Generally we don't do person-to-person correspondence in Stack Exchange, what's best is for information to be available to everyone reading the discussion. I'm not sure what format you have (PDF, text, scans) but if it's possible to find a file-sharing site that can accept it then you can get a link and add it to your question.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-04T07:43:26.233Z
@uhoh-please suggest me the site and I will put on it. I have about 16 pages scanned about 45 MB
Mohan Mone
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-04T11:22:13.277Z
@MohanMone wow that's great! Is the format JPEG or PNG or PDF or something else? Let's see if it can be made a little smaller, 3MB per page for a scientific paper sounds like it could be made 10x smaller fairly easily. The answer to [Places to host reference documents?](https://space.meta.stackexchange.com/q/1046/12102) mentions that Internet Archive might be able to accept documents directly for example.
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-04T12:49:04.877Z
@uhoh The Internet Archive is a good place, but you need to make sure you have the rights to distribute the paper that way first. Either 1) You must be the copyright holder, 2) The work must be licensed for redistribution, or 3) It must be public domain.
called2voyage
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-04T12:53:50.450Z
@MohanMone Also, if you want more control over who has access, you can host in Google Docs instead, but if you make it link-shareable you still need to make sure you have the rights to distribute.
called2voyage
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-04T12:58:31.187Z
@MohanMone *What exactly* do you have? Is it a published paper in a journal or a text of some kind, something that you can cite (title, author, journal, date)? Is it in a library somewhere where individual copies can be requested from the library's reference desk? What exactly is it? Maybe you can just upload an image of the first page or top half of it with the citation info into your question so we can have a better idea what it is that we're talking about. As long as it is below the 2 MB limit for uploading images here. *Thanks!*
uhoh
<pluto>
Planet X prediction by V. B. Ketkar; how could a search for the 2nd planet (Vishnu) be conducted?
Mohan Mone
# Planet X prediction by V. B. Ketkar; how could a search for the 2nd planet (Vishnu) be conducted?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-03-03)

The Indian Astronomer V. B. Ketkar (1853-1930) predicted TWO trans Neptune planets in 1911 in a letter to Bulletin of Astronomical Society of France in May 1911, page 277. Laplace Laws of satellites of Jupiter were modified and applied by Ketkar for arriving at this results.

The first planet (Brahma) discussed there is subsequently discovered as Pluto. The second planet (Vishnu) has not yet been discovered, and is currently referred to as "Planet X" by Astronomers.

Can one calculate the current location and observe it?

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/WPDKG.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/WPDKG.png)

**Tags:** pluto

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The image appears to be from [Chhabra et al. 1984](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1984InJHS..19...18C/abstract). [Wikipedia:Planets beyond Neptune](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planets_beyond_Neptune) footnote links to [this PDF](http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/rawdataupload/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005abd_18.pdf).  
> **username_0**: You are right about Mr Chhabra. I have an access to Original notes from Mr V B Ketkar , about whose work J G Chhabra, S D Sharma, and Manju Khanna-Department of Physics, Panjabi University,Patiala-INDIA, have published this in Indian Journal of History of Science 1984. However I have not heard any further development on the works of Mr V B ketkar. Hence I have taken up the subject.  
> **username_2**: It's generally accepted that Pluto cannot account for the disturbance of the orbit as observed for Neptue - even when it was found where predicted. As such it is not even planet IX and its discovery is more a chance that it was there where it was rather than an effect of a correct prediction. More recently there are some interesting papers which discuss the similarity of orbital parameters of various TNOs and infer some common cause which hypothetically could be a planetX (I don't have references at hand currently)  
> **username_3**: @MikeG for some reason I can't access the link for that source for the image. Can you mention the title and author so I can search for another version? Thanks!  
> **username_3**: @MohanMone With only those numbers it is certainly possible to calculate a rough position along the ecliptic, there's an epoch, longitude and a semi-major axis. But that's not a complete set of orbital elements so the assumption has to be made that it's somewhere near the ecliptic and a search would have to start there, which may not be the case. For example Pluto's inclination is 17 degrees. Also, I've made some small edits to your post, feel free to roll back or edit further.  
> **username_3**: I just saw [this](https://books.google.com/books?id=5unEQa2wsykC&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&dq=Indian+Astronomer+V.+B.+Ketkar&source=bl&ots=vu_XIDns2V&sig=ACfU3U2mVbjDGe2-URxJxkfMfiBoVhrdeQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJ1Kykzv_nAhUGQd4KHcYwDUAQ6AEwAHoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=Indian%20Astronomer%20V.%20B.%20Ketkar&f=false)  
> **username_0**: @username_3 I can send you the paper which was published in 1984. Send me email address.  
> **username_3**: @MohanMone Thank you very much for the offer! Generally we don't do person-to-person correspondence in Stack Exchange, what's best is for information to be available to everyone reading the discussion. I'm not sure what format you have (PDF, text, scans) but if it's possible to find a file-sharing site that can accept it then you can get a link and add it to your question.  
> **username_0**: @username_3-please suggest me the site and I will put on it. I have about 16 pages scanned about 45 MB  
> **username_3**: @MohanMone wow that's great! Is the format JPEG or PNG or PDF or something else? Let's see if it can be made a little smaller, 3MB per page for a scientific paper sounds like it could be made 10x smaller fairly easily. The answer to [Places to host reference documents?](https://space.meta.stackexchange.com/q/1046/12102) mentions that Internet Archive might be able to accept documents directly for example.  
> **username_4**: @username_3 The Internet Archive is a good place, but you need to make sure you have the rights to distribute the paper that way first. Either 1) You must be the copyright holder, 2) The work must be licensed for redistribution, or 3) It must be public domain.  
> **username_4**: @MohanMone Also, if you want more control over who has access, you can host in Google Docs instead, but if you make it link-shareable you still need to make sure you have the rights to distribute.  
> **username_3**: @MohanMone *What exactly* do you have? Is it a published paper in a journal or a text of some kind, something that you can cite (title, author, journal, date)? Is it in a library somewhere where individual copies can be requested from the library's reference desk? What exactly is it? Maybe you can just upload an image of the first page or top half of it with the citation info into your question so we can have a better idea what it is that we're talking about. As long as it is below the 2 MB limit for uploading images here. *Thanks!*  

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## 0 answers

