found “the strongest statistical evidence yet”

A new study has found evidence of the existence of a ninth planet – or “Planet 9” – on the edge of our Solar System.

The “strongest statistical evidence yet” that there is a planet of this type orbiting at the ends of the Solar System. The statement was made by astronomer Konstantin Bogytin, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in statements to The Independent.

According to the researcher, to reach this conclusion, the team analyzed the movement of Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), that is, celestial bodies of various sizes beyond the orbit of Neptune, which include dwarf planets such as Pluto and Eris.

The team focused on TNOs that were ignored due to their unstable movements, caused by Neptune’s gravity. This instability makes their paths more difficult to interpret, but researchers gladly accepted the challenge.

The data was then fed into simulations and combined with known forces from other planets, passing stars and the galactic tide coming from the Milky Way – the push and pull of the galaxy itself. Two sets of simulations were run: one that assumed Planet Nine was where astronomers think it might be, and another that simply assumed that Planet Nine doesn’t exist.

“Taking into account observational biases, our results reveal that the orbital architecture of this group of objects aligns closely with predictions from the P9 inclusive model”, wrote the researchers, cited by Science Alert.

However, researchers admit that we are still very far from obtaining conclusive evidence that Planet Nine exists.

Previous attempts to detect it, analyzing its hypothetical effects on the rest of the Solar System, were insufficient. Still, as more powerful telescopes emerge, this question has an increasing chance of being resolved.

Based on the team’s calculations, a planet that matches the expected characteristics of Planet Nine would be relatively smallwith a mass just five times that of Earth and a distance about 500 times greater than our distance to the Sun.

The scientific article was accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters and can be consulted on arXiv.