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Associated Press

The solar system may have a ninth planet after all.
This one is much bigger than Earth, 5,000 times bigger than outcast Pluto and billions of kilometres farther away, say scientists who presented “good evidence” for a long-hypothesised “Planet X” on Wednesday.
Watch: Researchers find possible ninth planet beyond Neptune

The gas giant is thought to be almost as big as its nearest planetary neighbour Neptune, quite possibly with rings and moons. It’s so distant that it would take a mind-blowing 10,000 to 20,000 years to circle the sun.
Planet 9, as the pair of California Institute of Technology researchers calls it, hasn’t been spotted yet. They base their prediction on mathematical and computer modelling, and anticipate its discovery via telescope within five years or less.
The two reported their research Wednesday in the Astronomical Journal because they want people to help them look for it.
“We could have stayed quiet and quietly spent the next five years searching the skies ourselves and hoping to find it. But I would rather somebody find it sooner, than me find it later,” astronomer Mike Brown said.
“I want to see it. I want to see what it looks like. I want to understand where it is, and I think this will help.”
Brown and planetary scientist Konstantin Batygin feel certain about their prediction, which at first seemed unbelievable to even them.
“For the first time in more than 150 years, there’s good evidence that the planetary census of the solar system is incomplete,” Batygin said, referring to Neptune’s discovery as Planet 8.
Once it’s detected, Brown insists there will be no Pluto-style planetary debate. Brown ought to know; he’s the so-called Pluto killer who helped lead the charge against Pluto’s planetary status in 2006. (Once Planet 9, Pluto is now officially considered a dwarf planet.)
“THIS is what we mean when we say the word ‘planet,’ ” Brown said.
Brown and Batygin believe it’s big — 10 times more massive than Earth — and unlike Pluto, dominates its cosmic neighbourhood. Pluto is a gravitational slave to Neptune, they pointed out.
Another scientist, Alan Stern, said he’s withholding judgement on the planet prediction. He is the principal scientist for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which buzzed Pluto last summer in the first-ever visit from Planet Earth. He still sees Pluto as a real planet — not a second-class dwarf.
“This kind of thing comes around every few years. To date, none of those predicts have been borne out by discoveries,” Stern said in an email Wednesday. “I’d be very happy if the Brown-Batygin were the exception to the rule, but we’ll have to wait and see. Prediction is not discovery.”
Brown and Batygin shaped their calculation on the fact that six objects in the icy Kuiper Belt, or Twilight Zone on the far reaches of the solar system, appear to have orbits influenced by only one thing: a real planet. The vast, mysterious Kuiper Belt is home to Pluto as well.
Brown actually discovered one of these six objects more than a decade ago, Sedna, a large minor planet.
“What we have found is a gravitational signature of Planet 9 lurking in the outskirts of the solar system,’ Batygin said. The actual discovery, he noted, will be ”era-defining.“
Added Brown: “We have felt a great disturbance in the force.”
Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington said Brown and Batygin’s effort takes his own findings to “the next level.” Two years ago, he and a colleague suggested a possible giant planet.
“I find this new work very exciting,” Sheppard said in an email. “It makes the distant Super-Earth planet in our solar system much more real. I would say the odds just went from 50 per cent to 75 per cent that this distant massive planet is real.”
Depending on where this Planet 9 is in its egg-shaped orbit, a space telescope may be needed to confirm its presence, the researchers said. Or good backyard telescopes may spot it, they noted, if the planet is relatively closer to us in its swing around the sun. It’s an estimated 30 billion to 160 billion km away.
The last real planet to be discovered in our solar system was Neptune in 1846. Pluto’s discovery came in 1930; humanity got to see the small icy world and its main moon Charon up close for the first time last July thanks to New Horizons.
Brown realizes skepticism will exist until Planet 9 is actually observed. History is packed with mistaken planet-seekers, he said, and so “standing up and saying we’re right this time makes us almost look crazy — except I’m going to stand up and say we’re actually right this time.”
He couldn’t resist this jab on his @plutokiller Twitter account:
“OK, OK, I am now willing to admit: I DO believe that the solar system has nine planets.”


Planet X: Scientists find evidence of giant planet on solar system’s edge, 10 times bigger than Earth

This July 14, 2015 photo released by NASA on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015 shows the atmosphere and surface features of Pluto, lit from behind by the sun. It was made 15 minutes after the New Horizons' spacecraft's closest approach. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI via AP)

Mike Brown, professor of planetary astronomy, and Konstantin Batygin, assistant professor of planetary science, at the California Institute of Technology announced Wednesday that they have found new evidence of a giant icy planet lurking in the darkness of our solar system far beyond the orbit of Pluto. MUST CREDIT: Photo for The Washington Post by Patrick T. Fallon.

A handout photo released by the Royal Astronomical Society on December 22, 2015 shows a map of the outer solar system. At the centre of the map is the Sun, and close to it the tiny orbits of the terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars). Moving outwards and shown in bright blue are the near-circular paths of the giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The orbit of Pluto is shown in white. Staying perpetually beyond Neptune are the trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), in yellow: seventeen TNO orbits are shown here, with the total discovered population at present being over 1,500. Shown in red are the orbits of 22 Centaurs (out of about 400 known objects), and these are essentially giant comets (most are 50-100 km in size, but some are several hundred km in diameter). Because the Centaurs cross the paths of the major planets, their orbits are unstable: some will eventually be ejected from the solar system, but others will be thrown onto trajectories bringing them inward

What lies beyond Pluto, seen here in a photo released in July 14 by Nasa? Photo: AP

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