SoylentNews

Gaaark [soylentnews.org] writes:

For years, some astronomers have believed there might be an extra planet in our solar system that may be so distant and dim that even the best telescopes have missed it. A new study looks into decades-old infrared maps of the sky where they noticed a slow moving, very faint speck in two different maps taken 24 years apart.

Far beyond Neptune lies the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy leftovers from the Solar System’s early days. Several of those objects, including the dwarf planet Sedna, follow orbits that cluster in one sector of space instead of being spread evenly around the Sun. Computer simulations in 2016 showed that a hidden planet five-to-10 times Earth’s mass could shepherd those orbits into the observed pattern. Other explanations exist, but none fit the data as neatly.

Two dots separated by two decades do not make an orbit: a handful of detections spread over months would trace a curved path, proving the object orbits the Sun and revealing how massive and distant it really is.

Even if this candidate fades on closer inspection, the search is poised to speed up. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, due to begin full operations in Chile later this year, will photograph the whole southern sky every few nights and is expected to discover tens of thousands of new Kuiper Belt objects. If Planet Nine (with apologies to Pluto) lurks out there, Rubin’s nightly movies of the heavens should either pin it down or finally rule it out.

https://www.zmescience.com/space/astronomers-just-found-a-faint-speck-that-might-be-the-missing-ninth-planet/ [zmescience.com]

Submitter writes: "I'd name the planet Vulcan. Any other ideas?"

Original Submission