The Mystery of Planet X Deepens

As evidence for a ninth planet in our solar system grows, a 30-year old theory about mass extinctions on Earth is resurfacing.

Evidence was discovered at the beginning of this year for the mysterious ‘Planet Nine’, and since then scientists have been looking for signs that could confirm its existence.

But the mystery of this planet has now deepened after an astrophysicist in the US has claimed this planet could have provoked comet showers that caused mass extinctions on Earth.

Yesterday, astronomer Mike Brown of Caltech, one of the scientists behind the initial announcement of the so-called ‘Planet Nine’, revealed he had found further evidence to support it.

This giant hidden planet is thought to sit on the edge of our solar system and is 10 times more massive than the Earth, gaseous, and similar to Uranus or Neptune. Worlds in Collion Immanuel Velikovsky Best Price: $20.28 Buy New $22.20 (as of 07:45 UTC - Details)

Now, Dr. Daniel Whitmire, a retired professor of astrophysics working at the University of Arkansas Department of Mathematical Sciences has suggested the planet triggers comet showers.

These comet showers could be powerful enough to travel towards Earth’s orbit and ultimately strike the planet and cause mass extinctions.

Dr. Whitmire and his colleague John Matese first published research on the connection between Planet X and mass extinctions in the journal Nature in 1985 while working at the University of Louisiana.

At the time, there were three explanations proposed to explain the regular comet showers.

These included the presence of a mystery planet on the outskirts of our solar system, dubbed Planet X, the existence of a sister star to the sun, and vertical oscillations of the sun as it orbits the galaxy.

In 1985, an additional planet in the solar system would have taken the total number of planets to 10, as Pluto was still classified as a planet until 2006 – X is 10 in Roman numerals. Earth in Upheaval Immanuel Velikovsky Best Price: $14.37 Buy New $17.57 (as of 07:45 UTC - Details)

The last two ideas have subsequently been ruled out as inconsistent with the paleontological record.

Only Planet X remains as a viable theory, and it is now gaining renewed attention, the university explained.

Dr. Whitmire and Matese’s theory is that as Planet X orbits the sun, its tilted orbit slowly rotates and Planet X passes through the Kuiper belt of comets every 27 million years. This orbit causes comets to be knocked into the inner solar system.

Professor Mike Brown and the researchers at Caltech recently inferred a mysterious planet’s existence based on orbital anomalies seen in objects in the Kuiper Belt, a disc-shaped region of comets and other larger bodies beyond Neptune. They have dubbed this planet Planet Nine.

But there is a lot of mystery surrounding additional planets in our solar system and whether the two theoretical planets are the same is up for discussion.

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