Scientists believe they have discovered possible location of ninth planet in Solar System

In the quest to find that hypothetical yet intriguing ninth planet, scientists have narrowed down their search to some potential places in our Solar System.

Researchers observe that some objects at the outside edge of the Solar System (beyond Pluto), are behaving in a way which looks like they are being pulled around by something that is not seen yet. This mysterious object could be another planet, as per researchers.

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Discovering this object could help scientists better understand the makeup of the Solar System, its formation as well as evolutionary processes.

This discovery was submitted to The Astronomical Journal using the data from the Pan-STARRS1 survey to eliminate 78 per cent of the potential places that had been identified by previous research as places for the ninth planet.

Quest to find the ninth planet

As per the discovery, the areas of particular interest include near the galactic plane. This galactic plane area will now be thoroughly examined at the upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory survey. The team is now rather looking at why the planet has not been found yet; one possibility of which is that it does not exist at all.

"Such an explanation would require new explanations for multiple phenomena observed in the outer Solar System. Until such explanations are available, we continue to regard Planet Nine as the most likely hypothesis", wrote the team in their paper.

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An alternative possibility is that Planet Nine is located even farther from the sun and possesses a greater mass than initially anticipated, rendering it more challenging to detect. Currently, the team posits that such a planet offers the most plausible explanation for the orbital patterns exhibited by observed objects in the outer reaches of the Solar System.

"The cluster of the directions of the orbits is the best known, but there is also the large perihelion distances of many objects, the existence of highly inclined and even retrograde objects, and the high abundance of very eccentric orbits which cross inside the orbit of Neptune," lead author Dr Micheal Brown told Universe Today.

Why scientists are looking for ninth planet?

The quest for a mysterious ninth planet stems from findings in 2015 by two astronomers from Caltech who observed six objects beyond Neptune arranged in a manner hinting at gravitational influence. This led to speculation about an unseen celestial body.

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The researchers have since refined their search, estimating the object's size to be two to four times that of Earth.

However, locating it remains challenging, prompting speculation that it might be a statistical anomaly or result from selection bias by the Caltech astronomers.

(With inputs from agencies)