‘Planet Nine’ could be tilting our solar system

Researchers from Caltech have found evidence that suggests the existence of an unknown planet in our solar system, making our neighbourhood potentially more exciting.

According to researchers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, Planet Nine, as they’ve named it, is approximately 10 times bigger than Earth and orbits about 20 times further from the Sun.

It has to be noted that the researchers discovered the planet’s “existence” using mathematical modelling and computer simulations and have not observed the object directly.

The so-called Planet Nine seems to have an elongated orbit in the outer solar system

“There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third. It’s a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that’s still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting,” said Brown in a blog post.

More research suggests that the unknown planet, which would only orbit the Sun once every 10 000 to 20 000 years, might be responsible for tilting our solar system due to its large gravitational pull, as seen below.

Featured image: NASA via Flickr