Scientists: A huge, frozen planet may lurk beyond Pluto

Now a century later, researchers at the California Institute of Technology say they have the best argument yet for Planet X.

On Wednesday afternoon, Brown tweeted that the paper was not officially published, but also a tongue-in-cheek reference to his newfound belief that the solar system does have nine planets.

The last real planet to be discovered in our solar system was Neptune in 1846.

Orbital paths of the six most distant known objects in the solar system (magenta) along with theorized path of “Planet Nine”.

For the first time since Neptune was discovered over a century and a half ago, scientists may have discovered another planet in our solar system.

Pluto used to be regarded as the ninth planet but was downgraded in 2006 to a dwarf-planet or “plutoid” and is now known unceremoniously as ‘asteroid number 134340’.

The region that it gravitationally dominates, according to the Cal Tech release and researcher Mike Brown, “makes it ‘the most planet-y of the planets in the whole solar system'”.

Scientists announced Wednesday they finally have “solid evidence” for Planet X, a true ninth planet on the fringes of our solar system. But Brown and Batygin are pretty confident it’ll turn up in the next five years or so. It’s a gazillion miles away, but apparently it’s big enough to “clear the neighborhood” and thus qualify as a real planet.

So where did this possible planet come from?

Perhaps Planet Nine represented a fifth core, that may have gotten too close to Jupiter or Saturn and been ejected into its current, distant orbit, said Brown.

Brown and Batygin have not observed the planet directly. “There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third”, co-author, Professor Mike Brown, also of Caltech, explained.

Another scientist, Alan Stern, said he’s withholding judgment on the planet prediction.

Sad that Pluto isn’t a planet anymore? This combined with its very long orbit makes getting an image of the planet extremely hard.

Its existence was inferred from the gravitational influence it has on several Kuiper Belt objects with highly unusual orbits.

Brown asked Batygin to help him figure out the weird orbits, and when they did the math the only thing that made sense was a much larger planet’s gravity was pulling on Sedna and a bunch of other smallish objects out in the deepest, darkest parts of our solar system. Ever since they pointed it out we’ve been scratching our heads… the only way to get these objects to line up in one direction is to have a massive planet lined up in the other direction…