New evidence points to the existence of Planet 9 in the Solar System

Astronomers have discovered potential new evidence supporting the existence of Planet 9 in the outer regions of our solar system. This evidence comes from studying the inclination of a group of objects beyond Neptune known as Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). A significant clue about Planet 9 was first observed nearly a decade ago when objects from the Kuiper Belt displayed clustering near Neptune’s orbit. The team focused on studying the dynamically stable TNOs, like Sedna-type objects, while ignoring the unstable ones.

In a recent study published on arXiv, a team led by Konstantin Batygin from the California Institute of Technology tracked the movements of long-period objects that cross Neptune’s orbit and exhibit irregular motions during their trajectory. The team conducted detailed calculations and astrophysical simulations to explore two scenarios that could maintain the stability of these TNOs: the presence of Planet 9 or interactions with the galactic tide and Neptune’s dispersion.

The results of the study showed that while Planet 9 would result in a flat perihelion distribution of objects crossing Neptune, the model without Planet 9 produced a distribution peaking around 30 Astronomical Units (AU). After adjusting for observational bias, the data strongly supported the existence of Planet 9 at a 5 sigma level of confidence on a scale of 6. This discovery provides compelling evidence that Planet 9 is indeed present in the outer reaches of our solar system.

While the exact location of Planet 9 in the sky remains unknown from this research, future observatories like Vera Rubin may help in its detection. Despite uncertainties, Batygin remains confident that further research and observation will continue to shed light on the existence of Planet 9.