This is where the mysterious “ninth planet” of the solar system might be

A new study published on the preprint server arXiv.org (which has yet to receive peer review) finds where – completely hypothetical of course – it could be. The ninth planet of the solar system. We are talking about “Planet 9” or “Planet X”, a long-discussed celestial body.

How do you find this notorious planet? Obviously thanks to the math, the same method used with the discovery of Neptune, where Uranus appeared to be “gravitationally pulled” by a planet. In the case of Planet Nine, we have no gravitational force on another planet, but On a strange group of small frozen bodies in the outer solar system.

Many of the orbits of these objects are grouped in the same direction … something very unusual. naturally, It might be a random trend, but it’s not very likely. And precisely because of the existence of this unusual group, scientists in 2016 theorized the existence of another planet, with a mass five times the mass of Earth and about 10 times more distant from the Sun than Neptune.

There are many theories about its existence (and its “absence”), and in the new study the researchers mention a new location to look for: Planet Nine may be closer to the Sun than previously calculated. The authors argue that the observations made so far have excluded this “proximal” region, which is why it has not yet been found.

If a planet exists, it should be It can be detected by the Vera Rubin Observatory When it is launched soon. Here you will find the original study Conducted by two researchers from Cornell University. However, for most astronomers, Planet Nine does not exist.