Planet X Solar System

Although they may sound like science fiction worlds, Planet X and Planet Nine are both hypothetical planets that have been thought to exist in our Solar System. Since the early 1900s, astronomers have been searching for a planet that could be responsible for perturbations in the orbits of other objects in the outer Solar System.

A possible cousin of Pluto seems to be circling the far reaches of the solar system. The dwarf planet candidate 2017 OF201 travels in a superwide orbit, with the sun relatively near one end of its

Pluto was considered the ninth major planet in our solar system until the definition of quotplanetquot was changed by the International Astronomical Union IAU in 2016. This new definition reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet. Even before the IAU action, back when it was discovered, it was thought that Pluto was as massive as Earth.

An artist's conception of Planet 9, or Planet X, which scientists theorize orbits in the distant solar system. Image credit Robin Dienel Carnegie Institution of Washington The race is on to find the giant planet that several teams of astronomers are convinced orbits far out beyond Pluto, but is nonetheless still part of our Solar System.

The possibility that there might be a large, unknown planet lurking in the outer Solar System far beyond Pluto has long been a staple of science fiction. But for the past decade, astronomers have

Finding a new planet in the Solar System is an extraordinarily rare event. The last planet to be discovered was Neptune in 1846, and Pluto's demotion to a quotdwarf planetquot in 2006 left many yearning for another planetary breakthrough. This new discovery could answer several enduring mysteries, including

What is Planet X? Until the late 18th century, our solar system was thought to host just six planets Mercury, Venus, Earth naturally, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, all of which could easily be

According to Brown, Planet X could be the fifth most massive planet in the solar system, similar in composition to icy Neptune and orbits the sun every 10,000 years. Finding this planet is easier

If there were one, that Planet Nine would quotnudge the closest part of 2017 OF201's trajectory inward until Neptune flung it out of the solar system.quot Because 2017 OF201 is there, that could be an

Instead, it's the theoretical Planet X, also called Planet Nine, a wide-orbit planet that would circle the Sun from far beyond Neptune, and far beyond Pluto, too. Planet X has been hypothesized for years, but how such a planet could have appeared in the outer Solar System has long stumped scientists.