All About Planet 9

You may think you know something as basic as all the planets in our solar system, but think again. Scientists just keep coming up with new discoveries, and one is a possible new addition to the neighborhood.

ETNOs, or extreme trans-neptunian objects, are objects furthest away from the Sun in our solar system–in other words, past Neptune. Besides dwarf planets, and other floating space junk, there is (hypothetically) an entire planet out there yet to be discovered.

You’re probably wondering, how is there another planet out there that we haven’t found? How do we know it exists? Scientists have come up with lots of evidence pointing to the existence of and ETNO they are now calling Planet 9. Most ETNOs come slightly closer to the sun at one point, and have tilted orbits. Due to computer simulations on this new planetary gravitational pull, scientists have reason to believe that there’s a planet about 5-10 times the size of Earth affecting how the ETNOs move. It’s likely that even if there isn’t a planet of that size out there, there is something that is waiting to be found.

As far as distance and orbit goes, with the mathematical evidence it seems that Planet 9 operates on an elongated orbit about 20 times further out than Neptune. It may take between 10,000 and 20,000 Earth years to complete its orbit around the Sun. This time frame may be the reason why suspicions of the planet’s existence were recently raised, and the suspected planet is probably just as old as the rest in our solar system. We have the astronomers and scientists at Caltech University to thank for these new ideas. The California Institute of Technology has been debating on this planet for years.

It all started in 2015 when scientists Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown announced that through computer simulations and mathematical models they had found possible evidence of a new planet. It could provide explanations for the movement of 10 other ETNOs in the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is similar to the asteroid belt, just 200 times as massive and stretching from Neptune, at 30-50 astronomical units from the sun. We’ve discovered more trans-neptunian objects over time, but it’s still a shaky scene for scientists who just can’t believe in something they can’t see.

There’s been some sort of breakthrough with correcting the physics of the simulations, which has given Batygin and Brown some more credence in the planet scene. Before, it was a common assumption that anything 10,000 astronomical units (AU) or more from the Sun is lost to space, but it turns out that might not entirely be the case. (One AU is equal to approx. 93 million miles.)

Even as we discover more, we seem to know less about the properties of space. As of now, Planet 9’s existence is hypothetical, but maybe we’re closer than ever to finding it. It’s not going to be easy to find something that could be hundreds of astronomical units away, but scientists are on the hunt.

And the person who finds it legally gets to name it.

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/claim-giant-planet-nine-solar-systems-edge-takes-hit