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| Astronomers Discover Potential Candidate for Ninth Planet: New Evidence from 40-Year-Old Data |
A team of astronomers from Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea has recently made a surprising discovery. By analyzing data from two infrared sky mapping surveys conducted 23 years apart, they found a faint yet intriguing trace. This trace is likely an object that could be the long-hypothesized Ninth Planet of our Solar System.
The idea of a Ninth Planet first emerged in 2016 when researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) observed that six transneptunian objects in the Kuiper Belt were grouped in an unusual way. This led to the suggestion that a large object might be influencing their orbits through its gravitational pull, drawing them into a specific area. If this planet exists, it could also explain the tilt of some distant objects' orbits and the presence of bodies moving in the opposite direction to the rest of the Solar System.
The latest study is based on the analysis of two infrared sky surveys—IRAS in 1983 and Japan's AKARI mission in 2006. The researchers were looking for a slow-moving object located about 500 to 700 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, which corresponds to the predicted orbit of the Ninth Planet. In the end, they found one "convincing candidate," whose location differed between the IRAS and AKARI images, and which exhibited the expected angular velocity.
However, the scientists emphasize that it is still too early to draw any conclusions. The current data is insufficient to determine the object's orbit or confirm that it is indeed a planet. While the discovery is intriguing, it requires further observation. The study is still in preprint form on arXiv and has not undergone peer review.
If these assumptions are confirmed, this discovery will bring us closer to solving one of the greatest mysteries of modern astronomy. Additionally, it would make our Solar System seem a little more "typical" compared to other star systems, where planets of a size between Earth and Neptune are found especially often.
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