Planet Nine
Something seems to be tugging on the most distant objects in the solar system. Two astronomers think it's a hidden planet, ten times the mass of Earth.
What was reported
In 2016, the astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, at Caltech, announced evidence that a large, undiscovered planet might orbit far beyond Neptune. They noticed that several small, icy worlds in the far reaches of the solar system have strangely lined-up orbits, as if something big were shepherding them.
The proposed Planet Nine would be several times the mass of Earth, taking 10,000 to 20,000 years to go once around the Sun, too far and dim to have been spotted so far.
Explanations offered
No one has found it yet, and some astronomers think the lined-up orbits could be a result of how and where surveys have looked, or of the combined pull of many small objects. New telescopes, such as the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile, may settle the question.
- When
- Proposed in 2016
- Where
- Caltech, Pasadena, California, USA
- Witnesses
- Astronomers at Caltech and elsewhere
- Status
- Not yet found
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