Earth’s solar system may have a new planet
February 2, 2016
Years after the planetary body Pluto was relegated to a non-planet designation, scientists at the California Institute of Technology may have discovered another planet that could potentially be the ninth planet in our Solar System.
Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, the researchers who first observed the possibilities regarding this could-be deep space body, have affectionately dubbed their discovery “Planet Nine”. The scientists have yet to actually view “Planet Nine” with their own eyes, but their data suggests that there is a good possibility that a massive planet has been positioned within our Solar System without any Earthly scientists knowing of its existence. The planet would be billions of miles away from Earth, so any lack of knowledge regarding the details of “Planet Nine” would be very understandable.
According to CNN’s disclosing of Batygin and Brown’s data, this discovery is set to have a mass “about ten times that of Earth”. It is also hypothesized that “Planet Nine” orbits the sun at the center of our Solar System at a distance that is twenty times that of Neptune’s orbiting distance. The university has gone as far as stating that “it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun.”
The experts that took part in the deep space revelation claim that orbits in the area of space past Neptune all “pointed” in the same direction, where the new planet is supposed to be residing. “The orbits are physically lined up in space,” according to Mike Brown.
And after Pluto was controversially deemed as a dwarf planet ten years ago in 2006, these researchers believe that “Planet Nine” is much too large for an argument to even take place regarding whether or not it would qualify as an actual planet. “Planet Nine” would replace Pluto as our Solar System’s 9th planet after the aforementioned ten year gap between Pluto’s re-designation and this new body’s inception into the collective scientific landscape.
This “replacement” of Pluto is actually quite ironic as according to Time.com Brown was one of the biggest advocators for Pluto to be re-labeled as a dwarf planet a decade ago. Time also reports that the two groundbreaking scientists may already have some ideas as to what they would entitle “Planet Nine” if it ends up being recognized the global scientific community.
“George”, albeit a rather simple name, is Batygin and Brown’s personal favorite so far.