Don’t Get Excited About the New Ninth Planet Just Yet
Yesterday’s announcement about a potential planet about ten times Earth‘s mass on a highly elongated orbit in the outer regions of the solar system caused quite a stir. However, it’s worth remembering that we’re merely talking about the result of simulations based on what is currently known about the orbits of a number of smaller and relatively recently discovered bodies and no direct evidence of the existence of this massive planet exists. And, if the results are accurate and it’s on average 20 times farther from the Sun than Neptune, but that distance varies greatly over the 10000 to 20000 years it requires for one full orbit, such evidence will be difficult to gather with the current technology.
That obviously doesn’t mean that the findings are wrong, and in fact another planet of significant mass was in recent years suggested as the explanation for the orbits of those other bodies by other scientists as well, but at the same time previous models tended to rule out the possibility. Of course, knowledge accumulates, technology improves, and new models and simulations are more likely to be more accurate than the older ones they may contradict, but this also means that they may be proven wrong as well in the future, especially when they are in fact based on relatively little data.
If true, it would be an exciting find, and at the same time not particularly surprising, the article even stating that such a planet would mean that our solar system isn’t as different from the others we’re currently aware of as it currently seems. But models and simulations based on the data gathered from observing tiny parts, possibly even less than one percent, of the orbits of a few other bodies aren’t exactly hard evidence, so let’s see whether actual proof can be found… Preferably before the fact that such a claim is rather hard to disprove with our current technology will prove detrimental to any efforts of finding alternate explanations, which may happen if a significant amount of time will pass with no clear resolution. Plus that it’s already offering even more fuel for crazy conspiracy theories.
