Planet Nine

I want to preface this by saying there is no "Planet X" IMO as pertains to the views of such a planet that many on this board hold. However, I have always felt there was a massive missing planet as we could never satisfactorily explain perturbations of a planet like Jupiter and the movement of outer objects.

The view that there is a missing massive planet has always been on the table and NASA has always supported the idea and never stood in the way of people trying to find proof of it. We know planets, often many, orbit stars in this outer region, why should we be different?

Link: Planet X Overview, Source: NASA

Caltech researchers have found evidence suggesting there may be a "Planet X" deep in the solar system. This hypothetical Neptune-sized planet orbits our sun in a highly elongated orbit far beyond Pluto. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed "Planet Nine," could have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbit about 20 times farther from the sun on average than Neptune. It may take between 10,000 and 20,000 Earth years to make one full orbit around the sun.

But this is all from January you might say, quite old and possibly already discussed. Fast forward to my news feed for today and what do I find?

Narrowing the field for the 9th planet

Batygin and Brown's work narrowed down the planet’s possible mass and orbit to areas where previous observations might have missed it. Their calculations suggest that it has a mass between five to 20 times that of Earth—a figure that is key to knowing the approximate size of the object they are looking for. They also suggest that its orbit is likely tilted about 30 degrees compared to the plane of the solar system—the relatively thin, flat zone in which the eight major planets orbit. They also propose that the planet is now likely near its farthest point from the sun, in the sky's northern hemisphere, and that it likely has an elongated orbit averaging between 380 and 980 astronomical units (AU) from the sun. (One AU is the average distance between Earth and the sun.)

We are on the virge of finding a very real planet in our outer solar system.

They previsouly released this model for what the orbit could look like:



And they've created 100+ more of those which have not yet been published.

n an as-yet unpublished set of about 100 new high-resolution computer simulations, Batygin says he and Brown have narrowed down Planet Nine's location to a roughly 600- to 800-square degree patch of sky.

The biggest piece of proof has turned out to be the very tilt of our solar system from the perspective of the inner planets.

Link: Did the Mysterious 'Planet Nine' Tilt the Solar System?, Source: Space.com

Bailey and her colleagues ran computer simulations that suggest that the tilt of the eight official planets can be explained by the gravitational influence of Planet Nine "over the 4.5-billion-years-ish lifetime of the solar system," Bailey told Space.com.

This is fascinating stuff!

ARXIV Source 1
ARXIV Source 2
ARXIV Source 3

a reply to: raymundoko

Nice compilation! Got some reading to do now, but I recall people in the past having been ridiculed for entertaining the possibility of a massive planet in the outer solar system.

It's been in the headlines for quite some time now, but putting it all (incl. the latest findings) in one thread is a neat idea ...

S&F

a reply to: jeep3r

I agree, there were times it was heavily ridiculed, but that mostly had to do with the idea of a planet passing through or even NEAR to the inner/outer solar system.

This planet is so far out we could probably mine it for precious minerals unti....I mean, explore it.

Scientists believe that this planet may be the cause of extinction level events on earth every 27 million years.

The Independent

a reply to: raymundoko
Whomever may have the time on their hands to do so should go collect the nasty negative "debunking" posts of the importance and possibility of this topic and post them here...
Just for a nice retrospective 'in your face skeptics' type rebuttal.

originally posted by: prevenge
a reply to: raymundoko
Whomever may have the time on their hands to do so should go collect the nasty negative "debunking" posts of the importance and possibility of this topic and post them here...
Just for a nice retrospective 'in your face skeptics' type rebuttal.

I don't think you will find a lot of skeptics on this board who feel that another planet cannot be out there residing in the Kuiper Belt or beyond. It's been my experience that most people on this site are open to the possibility.

They may say that there is not enough evidence to say with certainty that it exists, and most of them definitely feel that if this planet exists, it CANNOT be the "Nibiru" of legend, but I don't think you will find too many at all who debunk the possibility of a ninth planet residing out there somewhere.