A possible ‘Planet Nine’ in the solar system

The researchers also found that their simulations predicted that there would be objects in the Kuiper Belt on orbits inclined perpendicularly to the plane of the planets. “It’s a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that’s still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting”.

We just demoted Pluto because it was too small and didn’t do a real planet’s job of taking out the orbital trash, but now the boffins at Caltech are claiming we have a ninth planet after all. It would take from 10,000 to 20,000 years to complete one orbit around the sun.

It’s great news for those who never quite got over the relegation of Pluto to non-planet status back in 2006, leaving the solar system feeling a bit empty.

No one has yet seen the new planet, and Sheppard placed the odds it will be confirmed at roughly 70%. Of the others: we’re standing on one, Uranus was discovered in 1781, Neptune in 1846 and Pluto (recently relegated) in 1930.

Two planetary scientists said Wednesday that a ninth planet could be orbiting the Sun in the outer reaches of our solar system.

Sad that Pluto isn’t a planet anymore?

Called Planet Nine for now, the object is said to be 20 times farther away than our most distant planet, Neptune, and would orbit the sun only once every 20,000 years.

In their report published Wednesday in The Astronomical Journal, the researchers say it looks like the orbits are all being affected by the presence of an unseen planet that’s about 10 times more massive than Earth – the size astronomers refer to as a super-Earth…

A couple of years ago, Bromley and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Scott Kenyon worked out two scenarios for the existence of a large planet in the outer solar system. Over time, mathematical modeling and computer simulation led them to the conclusion that a planet was exerting the gravity necessary to shape these orbits.

Incidentally, this is the second time Brown has reshaped our map of the solar system.

Brown and Batygin arrived at these findings through their study of objects and bodies in space within the Kuiper belt, a collection of icy objects beyond Neptune’s orbit.

Now, the task for stargazers worldwide is to visibly confirm the existence of Planet Nine, somewhere within the calculated planetary orbit.

If, however, Planet Nine is now located anywhere in between, many telescopes have a shot at finding it.

“What has been discovered is evidence that it could exist”, Wiggins said, adding that the evidence is “pretty decent”.

Who knows, there could even be a Planet 10 out there well beyond No. 9, but there aren’t enough data at this point to guess, Brown said.