Evidence of ninth planet in solar system found

Los Angeles: Our solar system may host a ninth planet that is 10 times the mass of the Earth and takes up to 20,000 years to orbit the Sun in a bizarre, highly elongated path, scientists say. The object, nicknamed Planet Nine, orbits about 20 times farther from the Sun on average than Neptune.

It would take the planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the Sun, researchers said. The researchers, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, from California Institute of Technology in US discovered the planet's existence through mathematical modelling and computer simulations but have not yet observed the object directly.

"There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third," said Brown. Brown said that the putative ninth planet - at 5,000 times the mass of Pluto - is sufficiently large that there should be no debate about whether it is a true planet.

Unlike the class of smaller objects now known as dwarf planets, Planet Nine gravitationally dominates its neighbourhood of the solar system. According to the researchers, Planet Nine helps explain a number of mysterious features of the field of icy objects and debris beyond Neptune known as the Kuiper Belt.

"Although we were initially quite sceptical 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," said Batygin. "For the first time in over 150 years, there is solid evidence that the solar system's planetary census is incomplete," he said.