“It could completely reshape our understanding of the solar system and of other planetary systems, and how we fit into that context.
Brown and his colleague, planetary scientist Konstantin Batygin, reported having strong evidence of a hidden planet on the fringes of our solar system.
“If you look at these bodies, their lifetimes are tiny compared to the age of the solar system,” Batygin said.
“By now, we expected to have found many more of these extreme trans-Neptunian objects,” Sheppard said in an email.
Finding a smaller planet would also spark excitement, Rice added, because every solar system planet is immensely useful for extrapolating information about the thousands of comparable exoplanets that researchers are uncovering across the galaxy.
Persons:
Mike Brown, Pluto, ”, Brown, Pluto’s, Malena Rice, ” Rice, Konstantin Batygin, Neptune, they’ve, Brown’s, “, we’re, Scott Sheppard, Chadwick Trujillo, Trujillo, ” Brown, Batygin, ” Batygin, Patryk Sofia Lykawka, ” Lykawka, Lykawka, Rice, Hur, Renu Malhotra, Malhotra, Sheppard, ” Sheppard, ” Malhotra, she’s, “ It’s, Sigurd Naess, ” Naess, Vera C, Rubin, That’s
Organizations:
CNN, Caltech, NASA, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Research, International Astronomical, ESA, Yale University, Getty, California Institute of Technology, Planet Nine, Carnegie Institution for Science, Northern Arizona University, Sheppard, Kindai University, Rice of Yale University, University of Arizona, Survey Telescope, Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, US National Science Foundation, Stanford University, Rubin, Rubin Observatory, Nine
Locations:
Pasadena , California, AFP, Washington ,, Japan, Neptune, Hawaii, Chile, Norway