Astronomers Find Evidence Of A Massive Object Beyond The Orbit Of Neptune
A team of researchers say they have found the “strongest statistical evidence yet that Planet 9 is really out there” in the solar system after studying a population of distant, unstable objects that cross Neptune’s orbit.
When it comes to discovering planets, finding them around other stars is actually a little easier than locating them around our own. Astronomers can watch for dips in light as planets pass their host star and block the light reaching our telescopes on Earth or in space, known as the “transit method”; or by observing the wobble of a star caused by planets orbiting it and the knock-on effect that has. Through these methods, and a few others, we have discovered thousands of exoplanets in the last few decades, while the number of planets in our solar system has remained at eight.
