The Mysterious Planet Nine: What We Know So Far
The existence of a ninth planet in our solar system has been a topic of debate among astronomers for years. Dubbed "Planet Nine," this hypothetical planet is believed to be located beyond the orbit of Neptune and to have a mass about ten times that of Earth. While there is no direct evidence of its existence, several lines of indirect evidence suggest that it may be out there. The Case for Planet Nine One of the most compelling pieces of evidence for Planet Nine comes from the orbits of several distant objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region of icy bodies beyond Neptune. These objects have highly elongated orbits that are all tilted in the same direction, which suggests that they are being influenced by the gravity of a massive object in the outer solar system. Computer simulations have shown that the gravitational pull of a planet with the mass and orbit of Planet Nine could explain the observed orbits of these objects. Another piece of evidence comes from the clustering of the...