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Planet Nine: Scientists find more evidence that hidden planet is sitting at the edge of our solar system

There appears to be something very odd happening at the edge of our solar system – and at least some scientists suggest that it is being caused by a huge, mysterious planet

Andrew Griffin
Sunday 27 March 2016 11:47 BST
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This artistic rendering shows the distant view from Planet Nine back towards the sun. The planet is thought to be gaseous, similar to Uranus and Neptune. Hypothetical lightning lights up the night side
This artistic rendering shows the distant view from Planet Nine back towards the sun. The planet is thought to be gaseous, similar to Uranus and Neptune. Hypothetical lightning lights up the night side (Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC))

New evidence strengthens the idea that there is a mysterious planet hiding at the far edge of our solar system.

Objects have been spotted moving around unusually at the edge of our solar system. And the best explanation for the strange orbits is the mysterious Planet Nine, according to one of the scientists who has argued that the hidden planet exists.

In January, a pair of scientists argued that they had found another planet, based on calculations using objects at the distant end of our solar system. By studying the orbit of six objects in the Kuiper Belt – a mysterious area thought to be filled of astroids and other icy objects – they argued that they were being affected by something large and previously unknown.

Possible 9th planet discovered

Now Mike Brown, who made those original claims, says that he has tracked another object in that Kuiper Belt that is also moving unusually. And its strange movement is exactly how what would be expected if Planet Nine is real, he claimed.

None of the claims has yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal or checked by other scientists. But the Canada France Hawaii Telescope is currently conducting the Outer Solar System Origins Survey, looking far into our solar system, and so will be able to check the claims as more Kuiper Belt objects are discovered.

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