what if another planet joined the solar
system some facts seem concrete water is
wet the sky is blue and there are eight
planets in the solar system but what if
that last one suddenly wasn't true
this is unveiled and today we're
answering the extraordinary question
what if another planet joined the solar
system are you a fiend for facts are you
constantly curious then why not
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fascinating content in recent years the
exact definition of a planet has been
trickier to pin down
Pluto's reclassification in 2006 saw it
rechristened as a dwarf planet having
been previously thought of as the ninth
planet since it was discovered in 1930
there was an effort also in 2006 to
regain Pluto its original status by
broadening our definition of what a
planet was but the move which would have
also seen Karen Xena and the large
asteroid Ceres promoted the planet hood
never came to fruition for today's
question though we're not so concerned
with the various bodies that we already
know to exist which could suddenly
become a planet if we changed our
definition instead we're imagining that
a true planet one that conforms to
today's understanding of what a planet
is suddenly shows up today we know that
there are thousands more trans-neptunian
objects out there other than Pluto so
could there really be another world
hiding just out of sight in the solar
system there are theories that there at
least was another planet way back in
ancient history this mysterious
hypothetical is nicknamed Planet 5 under
the assumption that it was once the
fifth planet from the Sun operating as
an additional inner planet in between
Mars and Jupiter the ideas that planet 5
left our solar system around 3.8 billion
years ago with apparent evidence of its
departure found on the inner planets and
our own moon which have similar impact
craters dating back to that time
according to Planet 5 advocates it's
statistically unlikely that all of those
craters could have been made in the same
period without a specific event causing
them that event is now known as the late
heavy bombardment where the inner
planets were pelted with asteroids we
know lhb happened but we're not sure why
so perhaps it was set off by Planet v
which for some reason found its orbit
disrupted before either crashing out of
the solar system via the asteroid belt
colliding with another planet or heading
straight into the Sun any of those
outcomes would have caused major
upheaval in the solar system and that
upheaval was the late heavy bombardment
or so the theory goes anyway back in the
present day the search for the so called
planet 9 continues and is in fact linked
to the previously overzealous discovery
of Pluto because Pluto was found when
assumed discrepancies in the predicted
orbits of Neptune and Uranus were
attributed to another planet being
nearby now we know that Pluto isn't that
planet and we also believe that those
orbital blips in Neptune and Uranus may
have been miscalculated but astronomers
currently have their eye set further
afield looking at similar problems in
the troublesome orbits of
trans-neptunian objects in general in a
bid to make sense of the chaotic cosmic
landscape beyond Neptune some on lockers
believe the elusive planet 9 could still
exist and there's even a NASA project
set up to encourage amateur stargazers
all around the world to try and find it
if it exists where the experts think it
might Planet 9 is most likely a super
earth with about ten times more mass
than our own earth and situated around
600 times further away from the Sun
which would go some way to explaining
why we haven't actually seen it yet so
that's planet 5 and planet 9 but
arguably the most popular extra planet
theory is the Nibiru theory or Planet X
actual evidence to back this one up is
thin on the ground but that hasn't
stopped it from gaining believers it's
essentially a doomsday prophecy that an
alien world
Nibiru will one day crash into earth and
destroy it it was born out of the 1976
book the 12th planet and which amateur
astronomer zecharia sitchin pitches
ancient Sumerian texts - apparently
prove Nibiru from there the idea got
conflated with a story from a psychic
Nancy Lieder who in 1995 claimed aliens
had told her that Planet X would wipe
out humanity in 2003 when that didn't
happen
Planet X found itself peddled as one of
the 2012 apocalypse scenarios and when
that didn't happen the date of collision
was recalculated - 2017 clearly the
Nibiru theory doesn't have a great track
record in terms of coming true NASA has
frequently spoken out against it but
the idea which many still believe does
tap into our darkest concerns about what
might happen if a new planet did join
our corner of space rogue planets are a
very real and potentially dangerous
thing these are planets not attached to
a star system drifting aimlessly through
space searching for a new home if some
interpretations of the Planet v theory
are true it could even be one of them
it's not impossible that one such planet
could get pulled in by the Sun's gravity
and if it was big enough that is bigger
than Jupiter it could pose monumental
problems for the orbits of everything
else in the solar system the pads of
most planets could stretch and become
more elliptical or just generally
unpredictable which would be bad news
for Earth such a change would most
likely pull our planet out of its
stabilizing life supporting Goldilocks
zone we'd suddenly face extreme winters
and summers which in just a couple of
years would turn our world into an
uninhabitable husk of rock but what's
even worse is that we'd also be totally
trapped even if the arrival of another
dominant planet happened centuries or
millennia in the future at a time when
humankind may have perfected commercial
space travel we wouldn't be able to
escape the consequences by planet
hopping elsewhere in the solar system
because the same thing could well be
happening everywhere save the planet was
big enough to ruin established orbits
but still wasn't able to find an orbit
of its own though it had plummet into
the Sun potentially pulling us and
others with it and placing everything
around our central star at the mercy of
one very nasty solar flare of course on
its way it could also outright collide
with earth obliterating us completely or
it could significantly disrupt the Oort
cloud the Kuiper belt or the asteroid
belt or crash into another tress triol
body all of which would send other
enormous projectiles flying through the
skies of course all of this is a
worst-case scenario
like the rest of space the solar system
is mostly very empty so there's every
possibility that even if a rogue planet
did suddenly show it had simply drift in
possibly disturbed certain orbits
slightly and then move on again
peacefully so long as it keeps far
enough away from the Sun in fact given
that we know so little about what goes
on out in the Oort cloud those very
processes could be happening right now
and that's what would happen if another
planet joined the solar system
what do you think is there anything we
missed let us know in the comments check
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