--- title: "Scientists Say They’ve Found More Evidence of Hidden Planet in Our Solar System" description: "Scientists have long been hunting for a hidden planet in our Solar System — and new research suggests that it's out there. " date: "2024-04-20" modified: "2024-04-20" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-further-evidence-hidden-planet" categories: - "Energy" - "Off-World" - "Renewable Energy" - "Science & Energy" - "Solar Power" - "Space" tags: - "planet 9" - "solar system" - "the digest" - "trans-neptunian objects" --- # Scientists Say They’ve Found More Evidence of Hidden Planet in Our Solar System ![Scientists have long been hunting for a hidden planet in our Solar System — and new research suggests that it's out there. ]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Beyond Neptune Scientists have long been hunting for a hidden planet out in the furthest reaches of our Solar System — and new research suggests with even more credibility that it actually is out there. In two new papers — one [published in the *Astronomical Journal*]() and another [shared but not yet peer-reviewed]() — the scientists responsible for popularizing the theory of a so-called "[Planet 9]()" argue that the hidden world may have been right under our noses this whole time. The crux of the theory, as Caltech planetary researchers and paper coauthors Caltech's Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown have long claimed, relies on what are known as "trans-Neptunian objects," or TNOs, that lie beyond the planet of Neptune in the outer edges of our solar system. As [*Scientific American* notes]() in its reporting on the new research, the most important of these TNOs is Sedna, a dwarf planet [Caltech researchers discovered in 2004]() that's considered the most distant object ever discovered in the Solar System. It has a very wonky orbit respective to the other things that make their way around our Sun, and as scientists began to discover [more of these sorts of objects](), a pattern emerged that suggested that *something* was affecting their elliptical axes. ## Planetary Gambit Named as a bit of a joke in the direction of planetary scientists chagrined at the de-planetification of Pluto in 2006, Planet 9 — or P9 as it's affectionately called — arose as a sort of Schrodinger's Planet, *SciAm* explains. What if, as the Caltech researchers began to wonder, a *planet* was [affecting the orbits]() of TNOs? Thus far, nobody has directly observed such a planet, but in the new papers that both deal with the search for P9, Batygin and Brown maintain that after looking at more and more TNOs, the best and simplest explanation for their strange orbits is that they're caught up in the "gravitational perturbations" of a planet we haven't yet spotted. The next steps, as the researchers behind the papers urge, is to utilize the power of the next generations of space observatories to try to find it — though as they caution, it still may be a while before P9, or whatever is affecting the TNOs, is detected. In particular, Batygin, Brown, et al are excited about the upcoming Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile, which is slated to be turned on in 2025 and will "be sensitive to all but the faintest and most northern predicted positions," as they predict in the *Astronomical Journal*. "This upcoming phase of exploration," they wrote in the *arXiv* paper, "promises to provide critical insights into the mysteries of our solar system’s outer reaches." **More on our home galaxy:** [*Ancient Structures Wound Together to Form Our Galaxy, Astronomers Find*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()