Space & Astronomy

Scientists find new evidence of the mysterious Planet Nine

By T.K. Randall
April 24, 2024

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) Nobody knows exactly where it is, how big it is or if it even exists at all, but when researchers at the California Institute of Technology revealed in 2016 that the existence of a ninth planet in our solar system was a very real possibility, the hunt for this enigmatic new world began in earnest.

Believed to be up to ten times the mass of the Earth and with an orbital period of up to 20,000 years, Planet Nine, if it exists, will be situated somewhere beyond the orbit of Neptune.

Finding it, however, is like looking for a tiny fraction of a needle in a very big haystack.The most recently discovered evidence in support of its existence comes courtesy of a small international team of planetary scientists who conducted a study that involved tracking the movements of long-period objects that crossed the orbit of Neptune and exhibited certain irregularities.

By using a computer simulation and taking into account various possible scenarios, they were able to determine that a large planet in the outer solar was the most likely cause of the irregularities.

While the research did not provide a way to locate this mysterious planet and there is a chance that the findings could be explained by way of other unknown forces not accounted for, the study does seem to bring the possibility of Planet Nine back into contention once again.

As things stand, however, only by directly observing this enigmatic world will we ever be able to say for absolutely certain that it actually exists.

Source: Phys.org

Tags: Planet Nine