Astronomers believe they have discovered a giant ghost planet hidden in our own solar system. Scientists are calling the mystery astronomical body “Planet Nine.” Sorry Pluto. This is no miniscule planet by all means either, with the research suggesting that the hidden planet is 10 times the size of Earth, but it is far, far away.
Scientists have yet to see this mysterious world, but they are basing its existence on a small, rocky object that has a peculiar orbit. This space rock, named 2015 BP519, is far past Neptune and is not orbiting the sun or any other known planet in our solar system. The theory is that object is orbiting a ghost planet that is hidden at the edge of our solar system. Space object 2015 BP519’s orbit is tilted 54 degrees from our orbital plane.
“It’s not proof that Planet Nine exists,” said David Gerdes, an astronomer at the University of Michigan who contributed to the paper. “But I would say the presence of an object like this in our solar system bolsters the case for Planet Nine.”
The exciting new findings were published in a paper at the Cornell University Library. The research was based on data from The Dark Energy Survey, a project that “aims to probe the dynamics of the expansion of the universe and the growth of large-scale structures.”
Theories about Planet Nine have been floating around since 2016 when distant objects were spotted with unusual orbits. Scientists believe that only a cosmic body of significant size could have the gravitational pull to snatch these objects. The reason we have never seen this mystery planet is because Planet Nine would likely take between 10,000 to 20,000 years to complete one rotation around the sun. If it indeed exists, Planet Nine is believed to be much farther away than Pluto and even our most powerful telescopes would be able to detect it. Until we track down this ghost planet, Pluto deserves to be Planet Nine.