What's Happened?
Scientists and astronomers are now saying that there is something big - very big - lurking in the outer solar system. Evidence is mounting that this massive object is in fact a dirty great planet, 10 times the mass of the Earth, taking Pluto's recently revoked spot as the 9th planet in the solar system. The idea that there is a "Planet X" lurking out in the far flung reaches of the solar system has actually been around for over a century, but it's only now that astronomers have been able to gather enough data to prove its existence and astronomers are now saying that this is the "best evidence yet" for Planet X.
What The Scientists Are Saying In a study published in
The Astronomical Journal, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown have claimed that recent analyses of the orbits of Kuiper Belt objects have revealed unexpected clustering in some objects' arguments of perihelion. It is calculated that his clustering of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) only has a probability of 0.007% (1 in 15,000) of happening by pure chance, and the more likely explanation is that another massive object is responsible for the orbital anomalies. The movements of the KBOs would be consistent with a distant, eccentric planet that lies beyond the orbit of Neptune. If this object
were Planet X, then it would be orbiting at 200 astronomical units and would have a mass of ten times that of the Earth.
But what would the existence of a ninth planet actually mean? Click next for the implications on the good people of Earth.