Astronomers Are Pretty Sure They’ve Found A New Planet in Our Solar System

It is a pretty amazing news for all those people who are annoyed that Pluto is no longer the planet in our Solar system. The researchers are now much more confident about the existence of ninth planet in our Solar System. Two CalTech scientists, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, say the atmosphere of this new planet is completely of hydrogen and helium. As concerned to the size of the planet, it is almost 10 times heavier than the Earth. Science magazine reports that the enigmatic “Planet X” moves in a distant orbit beyond Neptune.

According to Science Journal, the hint of the existence of this planet came, when researchers came closest to the sun and observed the distinctive configuration of six objects. The scientists say that there’s a 0.007 percent probability that the configuration is due to chance, and instead are confident it’s a ninth planet. The recent observations and calculations show that this planet is almost the 5000 times greater in mass than the Pluto.

According to The Associated Press, the scientists are confident that they will observe this new planet directly within 5 years with the help of a telescope.

Question arises here that where did this possible planet come from?

Scientists have previously guessed that there could be an omitted planet from our solar system, with some postulating that about 4 billion years ago a collision resulted in the ejection of a planet out of our Solar system. That collision may have been with Jupiter.

Batygin said: “Although we were initially quite skeptical that this planet could exist, as we continued to investigate its orbit and what it would mean for the outer solar system, we become increasingly convinced that it is out there, there is solid evidence that the solar system’s planetary census is incomplete.”

In The Astronomical Journal, Batygin and Brown described their observations.

This is the second time that Brown has changed the typical way of our thinking about our Solar System.  In 2005, he made a key discovery that led scientists to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet.

In a statement, Brown said: “All those people who are mad that Pluto is no longer a planet can be thrilled to know that there is a real planet out there still to be found.”