Undiscovered Planet Nine 'likely' exists at edge of Solar System, says boffin

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There could be evidence to suggest a new ninth planet is lurking in our Solar System, scientists have claimed.

"Planet Nine" or "Planet X" has long been theorised as an explanation for the strange orbits of dwarf planets in our solar system, far out beyond Neptune. But, despite this hypothetical planet potentially being as big as Neptune, it has not been discovered.

Now, new research from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters stating they have found additional evidence supporting the existence of the planet.

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Planet X could be lurking (artist's impression) (Image: NASA)

Speaking to Newsweek, professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech and study co-author Michael Brown has said: "I think it is very unlikely that P9 does not exist. There are currently no other explanations for the effects that we see, nor for the myriad other P9-induced effects we see on the solar system."

He added: "If there is not [a] Planet Nine, we would have to come up with five to six separate (and unknown) explanations for all of these oddities in the outer solar system."

The same group of researchers found mathematical evidence of a massive planet 10 times larger than Earth orbiting the Sun 20 times further out than Neptune in 2015. Their research at the time indicated that this Planet Nine could take 10,000 and 20,000 Earth years to orbit the Sun around an elliptical orbit.

There are strange orbits at the edge of the Solar System (file) (Image: UNIVERSITY)

The scientists believe that the unusual groupings of celestial bodies' orbits around the Sun could be caused by a mysterious additional planet. They have been tracking these orbits and have concluded the most likely explanation is the existence of another large planet beyond Neptune that has not yet been discovered.

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