Astronomers May Be On The Verge Of Discovering A Ninth Planet After The Title Was Taken Away From Pluto

For a while, Pluto was considered the ninth planet in our solar system, but in 2006, it was reclassified as a dwarf planet because it did not meet all the criteria that are used by the International Astronomical Union to define a full-sized planet.
Now, astronomers may be on the verge of discovering a ninth planet—not Pluto. The possible ninth world has been nicknamed “Planet Nine.”
The hunt for Planet Nine has persisted for nearly a decade. It’s been so hard to detect because of how far away it is from the sun.
But with the opening of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile next year, scientists may just be able to spot the potential ninth planet or dismiss the idea of it for good.
Aside from the now-downgraded Pluto, no other planets beyond Neptune or the Kuiper Belt have been found.
The Kuiper Belt is a massive ring of asteroids, comets, and dwarf planets that orbit the sun beyond Neptune. As time went on, it was looking more and more unlikely that a ninth planet existed.
However, in 2004, scientists discovered that a dwarf planet called Sedna, which was located past the Kuiper Belt, had an unusual orbit around the sun.
This indicated that another large mass out there in the solar system was gravitationally pulling it. In 2014, an object in the Kuiper Belt with a similar orbit was found. Afterward, four others were detected as well.
The findings have led scientists to the conclusion that an unknown planet was the cause of these strange orbits.

Vadimsadovski – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, astronomers at the California Institute of Technology, calculated that there was only a two percent chance that all six objects just happened to randomly share the same misshapen orbit.
So, in 2016, they came up with the “Planet Nine hypothesis.” Since then, the total number of objects with odd orbits has climbed to 13.
These discoveries have helped them estimate the size of Planet Nine, its distance from the sun, and its orbital path.
According to Brown, it’s about seven times bigger than Earth, which would make it the fifth-largest planet in our solar system.
Because of how far away it is from the sun, Planet Nine probably resembles Neptune and may be surrounded by moons.
Planet Nine is likely around 500 astronomical units away from the sun. It could take between 5,000 and 10,000 years for Planet Nine to make just one trip around the sun.
Many astronomers believe it’s “quite likely” that a ninth planet exists based on the available evidence.
Others are skeptical, citing a number of other theories that explain the strange orbital behaviors of the 13 objects.
For instance, a baby black hole or a giant disk of dust that is invisible to the human eye could be the culprit.
If scientists really do come across Planet Nine in the next few years, it would be the most significant solar system discovery of the century.
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