Legend has it
that somewhere beyond Neptune and Pluto,
there is a ninth planet,
with a mass that is five times
greater than Earth's.
Planet Nine,
also known by its more ominous name of
is shrouded in mystery.
But what if we were able to
close this case once and for all,
and figure out if Planet Nine
is the real deal?
Let’s flashback to 1846,
when we discovered Neptune.
After this glorious find,
scientists started wondering
if there was another planet close by.
Astronomer Percival Lowell
then used calculations to predict
a possible orbit and location of this planet.
In 1930,
we thought we finally found it,
but it was another planet called
Pluto.
You may have heard of it.
So, what exactly is supposed to be out there?
Planet Nine is a hypothetical planet
on the outskirts of our Solar System.
The problem is that it’s located so far away,
we might as well talk about
where the Solar System ends,
and what’s out there,
which is another can of worms.
One theory is that Planet Nine formed
at the same time as the other gas giants
in our Solar System,
Jupiter,
Saturn,
Uranus,
and Neptune.
And while little baby Planet Nine
was feeding and growing,
basically attracting gas
from the gas disk in the Solar System,
it got too close to Jupiter’s gravity,
and bounced out of the Solar System.
Because of this,
Planet Nine could no longer absorb
the gas it needed to continue growing,
and ended up at a size of 5-15 times
the mass of Earth.
Another theory is that
while the Sun was still growing
inside its stellar nursery,
aww baby Sun,
it might have captured an object
from another star system
residing within that nursery.
So in a sense,
Planet Nine was kidnapped
from another star system.
Either way,
there’s still a lot of speculation
about how it got there,
and even if it’s out there at all.
So, how would we get a closer look?
Well, the thing about Planet Nine is
that it’s all about the facts.
For us to change our view
of our very own neck of the woods,
the Solar System,
we'd have to have hard evidence.
The first way, and the luckiest,
would just be to stumble across Planet Nine.
Ah, there it is.
Case closed.
But if it isn’t that easy,
we’d have to embrace our inner sleuths
and track it.
We could potentially catch its trail by using
TNOs, or Trans-Neptunian objects.
They're the frozen, rocky bodies
floating around in the Kuiper Belt.
We recently found one dubbed "FarOut",
and to date,
it's the most distant object in the Solar System
we've discovered.
It's located about
123 astronomical units (AU) away.
The goal is to identify as many
TNOs as possible,
as this will increase the chances
of discovering Planet Nine.
Sort of like following a trail of breadcrumbs
leading us to this enigmatic planet.
The behavior of these TNOs suggests
that there is a massive object out there
on the outskirts of the Solar System,
and it's forcing these objects to assimilate.
Could it be Planet Nine?
Well, here’s the thing.
Sooner or later,
we will find it
if it exists.
Many studies are already underway,
and more will start within the next few years.
Astronomical sleuths will use everything
from bigger and better telescopes,
to faster and more powerful computers,
to sift through all that data.
We’re discovering new cosmic objects
all the time,
so we may just find Planet Nine after all.
This isn’t the first time
we’ve looked for something that some people
didn't think would exist.
There may even be some
undiscovered mysteries on our own planet.
What if, deep below the ocean,
the kraken was real?
Well, that’s a story for another WHAT IF.