Scientists may have found a new, giant planet in our solar system

Space

While Pluto has been bumped down to dwarf status, astronomers from the California Institute of Technology (CIT) have found evidence that there is in fact another planet in our solar system.

Unfortunately, they haven't actually found the planet itself, which is being referred to as Planet Nine, but the astronomers believe it could be almost 10 times the size of Earth and sits far beyond Pluto, past the Kuiper Belt, between 20 billion and 100 billion miles away.

If there, this would mean the new mystery planet would only orbit the Sun once every 10,000 to 20,000 years, which could be the reason astronomers haven't been able to find it yet.

Gravity in orbit

According to the two astronomers from CIT, professors Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin, whose findings have been published in the Astronomical Journal, the evidence of Planet Nine's existence can be found in six objects beyond the Kuiper Belt that have elliptical orbits.

All six objects orbit in the same area of the solar system, tilting at the same angle and loop, and the chances of that happening are only about one in 14,000.

The astronomers argue that it could be the gravitational pull of the giant Planet Nine basically herding these six into an orbit.

Still, the planet has yet to be found, and Dr. Brown, who began searching for the planet a year ago, believes it could take up to 5 years to actually locate it.

Via The New York Times