Some scientists suspect that a massive planet that has never been observed
by astronomers may be lurking, almost covertly, near the shadowy fringes of
our solar system.
Astronomers had located all eight major planets by 1846, and since then,
several more 'dwarf planets,' including Pluto, have been discovered.
But, Sara Webb, a space scientist, claimed that efforts are still being
made to find the enigmatic "ninth planet," which is believed to be located
far beyond Neptune in our solar system.
There is a ton of evidence for the planet, which is believed huge be up to
20 times further from the Sun than Neptune, but it might not be able to
observe with current equipment.
The enormous, undiscovered planet is estimated to be ten times as big as
Earth and to have an orbital period of 10,000–20,000 years.
There's a solid reason scientists spend many hundreds of hours attempting
to find a ninth planet, often known as Planet Nine or Planet X, according to
Webb of Swinburne University in Australia. And the reason for that is
because without it, the solar system as we currently understand it would be
absurd. Our best indication of a potential Planet Nine comes from our
knowledge of gravitational attraction.
"We discover that the orbits of truly far-off objects, such the minor
planets beyond Pluto, are a little surprising. They are clustered together,
have extremely massive elliptical (oval-shaped) orbits, and are situated on
an elevation in relation to the rest of the solar system.
"A planet at least 10 times the mass of Earth would have been required to
cause this," say scientists after modeling the gravitational forces
necessary for these objects to travel in this way on computers.
A scientist from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
previously proposed that Planet Nine may be five times the size of Earth in
addition to existing.
"With five Earth masses, Planet Nine is likely to be highly evocative of a
normal extrasolar super-Earth," stated Professor Konstantin Batygin.
Like our planet, super-Earths are rocky bodies. but enormously
larger.
It might take up to 1,000 years before the planet is discovered since it is
so distant from the Sun and is thus expected to be quite dark on the
planet.
Some scientists think that there could indeed be a large disc of frozen
objects out there.
Because of a new generation of space telescopes, Webb is confident that
Planet Nine will be discovered sooner rather than later.
She claimed that locating the enormous object presents particular
difficulties.
"The ideal circumstances can only exist for brief periods of time at night.
To be more precise, we must wait for a night without a moon and one in which
the position from where we are viewing the sky faces the proper
direction.
"New telescopes will be constructed and new sky surveys will start in the
coming ten years. They could even provide us with the chance to confirm or
deny the existence of Planet Nine.
