‘Earth-like’ Planet Nine could be hiding in our solar system: research

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‘Earth-like’ Planet Nine could be hiding in our solar system:  research

By Hannah Sparks
September 4, 2023

There may be another world lurking between the orbital lines of our solar system.

Astronomers in Japan have published their theory of an “Earth-like planet,” dubbed Planet Nine, that’s hiding in plain sight just a few billion miles behind Neptune.

Published last month in the Astronomical Journal, researchers Patryk Sofia Lykawka and Takashi Ito, of Japan’s Kindai University and the country’s National Astronomical Observatory, respectively, peered deep into the Kuiper Belt to search for signs of planetary bodies.

The Kuiper Belt is a massive ring composed of interstellar objects such as dwarf planets, asteroids, carbon masses and icy volatile elements like methane and ammonia. The celestial scrapyard sits just past Neptune’s orbit and circles the sun like anything else in our solar system.

Lykawka and Ito’s findings point to another significant object within the Kuiper Belt with “peculiar” properties, such as gravitational influence over other objects, to suggest its planetary status.

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If their calculations serve them correctly, Planet Nine would have a mass that is about 1.5 to 3 times that of Earth, at 500 times the distance between our home and the sun.

Caltech researchers in 2014 were reportedly the first to come up with a firm theory on Planet Nine after observing disturbances in space objects just beyond Neptune, also known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs).

Separate research in 2020 hypothesized that a Planet Nine may have been positioned much more centrally within our system before Jupiter’s inception whizzed it off into the far reaches.

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Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/09/04/earth-like-planet-nine-could-be-hiding-in-our-solar-system/