(PCM) Growing up we were always taught that there were nine planets in our solar system, however in later years research indicated that ninth planet Pluto was actually not a planet after all and it was downgraded to being just another star. It now appears that original calculations were correct and there are indeed nine planets that make up our solar system with the newly discovered evidence of a rather large Neptune-sized mass that scientists have deemed “Planet IX”.
The planet has not yet been actually seen, yet evidence of it’s existence is incredibly strong based upon calculations about the way that ice chunks in Kuiper Belt were beginning to form an orbit around the sun that crossed into the same plane as the other eight planets that orbit the sun as well. The researchers claims that there is only a 1 in 15,000 chance that those ice chunks would have clustered in such a way randomly, so therefore they must be connected to a larger planet. It is also claimed that this new “Planet IX” is much further out in orbit than either Neptune or Pluto and can take 10,000 to 15,000 years to completely orbit around the sun.
The researchers believe that “Planet IX” formed around the same time as both Neptune and Uranus and it is most likely made up of both methane and ice. The Subaru Telescope in Hawaii is now monitoring the night sky for “Planet IX”, and they hope to get visual confirmation within the next five years.
