Planet X: Scientist Find Solid Evidence for 9th Planet

Despite the potential planet’s large mass – slightly smaller than Neptune’s – its distance from the sun would make it very hard to view due to a lack of light where it orbits and therefore would require a more direct approach for astronomers to see it.

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology say they have “good evidence” that Planet X, a mysterious ninth planet hidden on the fringes of our solar system, actually exists.

Almost 10 years after Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet, the solar system might have expanded back to its full complement of nine planets.

Experts revealed that there might be a ninth planet in the solar system beyond Pluto.

Already gearing up for questions over whether it’s a true planet, Brown points out that it is 5,000 times the mass of Pluto and gravitationally dominates its neighborhood of the solar system – more so than any other known planet.

Batygin and Brown based their claim on the orbits of six of 13 smaller planets beyond Neptune or in the Kuiper Belt.

The six most distant known objects in the solar system with orbits exclusively beyond Neptune (magenta) all mysteriously line up in a single direction. “But I’d also be perfectly happy if someone else found it. That is why we’re publishing this paper”. They believe they will observe the planet with a telescope within five years, according to The Associated Press. But if Planet Nine eventually is found, there won’t be any question about its planetary status.

Space sleuths have been searching for just such a planet for more than a century, with no luck, but the discovery of mini-worlds in the comet belt beyond Pluto have kept their interest piqued. They describe their findings in the current issue of the Astronomical Journal.

That’s not likely to stop the conspiracy theorists from calling it their mythical planet “Nibiru”, which they say pays the Earth a catastrophic visit every few millenia.

The object, called Planet Nine, has an elongated orbit – much longer than Earth’s – that reaches the outer limits of the solar system, according to Caltech researchers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin.

If so, it will be the first new “planet” found since Uranus was discovered in 1781 and Neptune in 1846. What researchers believe is that a new planet, unofficially dubbed “Planet X”, is pulling these objects into its orbit.

Alessandro Morbidelli of the Côte d’Azur Observatory in France, an expert in dynamics of the solar system, said he was convinced. “I would say the odds just went from 50 per cent to 75 per cent that this distant massive planet is real”.

If you’re still going “NAAAH”, here’s Brown and Batygin explaining their theory further.