Experts revealed that there might be a ninth planet in the solar system beyond Pluto. Scientists took into consideration the possibility of existence of a hidden planet beyond Pluto already a couple of years earlier.
On Wednesday, two astronomers reported that they observed signs of an astral body farther away and bigger than the planet Pluto. This would be in accordance with the current definition of a planet.
A professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, Michael E. Brown declared, as cited by The New York Times, that he and his colleagues are pretty sure of the existence of another planet in the solar system. However, professor Brown and his colleague Konstantin Batygin from Caltech did not actually found that planet.
Dr. Brown and Dr. Batygin published a detailed circumstantial argument pleading in favor of the planet's existence in a report published in The Astronomical Journal. In their report, the scientists explained that they found that the orbits of six small astral bodies are titled about the same angle and loop outward in the same quadrant of the solar system.
According to Dr. Batygin, there are little odds of that happening just by chance. Besides the little odds that this alignment is coincidental, this patter would also disappear over time, contrary to their observation. A more plausible cause could be the fact that a ninth planet could affect the small planetary bodies into these orbits due to its gravitational pull.
According to their calculations, this ninth planet would be at most likely much bigger than the Earth, possible having the same size as the planet Neptune and a mass about ten times that of our planet.
Other scientists, such as Alessandro Morbidelli of the Côte d'Azur Observatory in France, affirmed that they are convinced by the arguments of the Caltech scientists and that they will start working to find this ninth planet.
