Man Behind Pluto Demotion Claims Planet Nine Exists, May Be Closer And Easier To Find

Talks about the ninth planet have reignited. Pluto was demoted in 2006 from the ninth planet. It was then said that Pluto was one of many dwarf planets. The person behind the theory that led to demote Pluto was Michael Brown. The astronomer has now said that a ninth planet could exist in the solar system. According to him, a planet bigger than the size of Earth could be orbiting the Sun. He predicted that the planet’s location was far beyond Neptune. Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun. It is farthest from the Sun. Brown’s statement has hinted that the planet could be Pluto. Pluto’s orbit crosses inside the orbit of Neptune for around two decades.

Brown and other astrophysicists decided to examine again the evidence behind a 2016 proposal. They had suggested that a planet beyond Neptune could exist. They explained that Planet Nine has anomalies similar to what astronomers have seen in the outer solar system. The area beyond the solar system is called the Kuiper belt. The belt is home to icy asteroids and cometary cores. Despite years of observation, astrophysicists have not seen Planet Nine. Some even suggested that the Planet Nine doesn’t exist. They said that Brown’s argument could be an outcome of observation bias. They said that clustering of objects could have happened accidentally.

Brown, however, said that clustering of objects is real. He referred to recent observations. He said that the chance of being a fluke is less than 0.5 percent. This means that Planet Nine is there. Brown said that he is working with more data collected from astronomical surveys to arrive at a concrete conclusion. He is hopeful of catching the first glimpse of the Planet Nine soon. Brown said that if the planet is not found in the data, it could be seen from a new large telescope that is coming in Chile. The telescope will begin its full operations in 2023. The orbit of Planet Nine is said to be closer to the Sun than what was said in 2016. According to Brown, the planet’s close orbit will make it appear much brighter and become easy to see. It could be around six times the mass of Earth.