For a long time, we had counted nine planets in our solar system, until Pluto was taken out and reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
Here's a reason for space nerds to celebrate: American astronomers may have discovered Pluto's replacement, which will revert us back to a nine-planet solar system.
Researchers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown announced on Wednesday that there is a possibility of another planet lurking around the outskirts of our solar system. They nicknamed this yet-to-be-confirmed space object "Planet Nine."
In a report by Agence France Presse, astronomers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) described Planet Nine as an object with "a mass about 10 times that of Earth."
What makes Planet Nine more peculiar is the fact that it follows a "bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the distant solar system," making it take a long time to complete a revolution around the sun.
"In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the Sun," the researchers said in a statement, as quoted by AFP.
The astronomers, however, did not exactly spot this distant planet. In their study published in the Astronomical Journal, they explained that the idea of Planet Nine came about after they did some mathematical modelling and computer simulations.
Batygin and Brown theorised that Planet Nine, presumed to have a mass 5,000 times more than Pluto's, affected the motion of dwarf planets in the outer portion of the solar system with its gravity.
The astronomers think the possible ninth planet may be agitating celestial bodies in the field of icy objects and debris beyond Neptune known as the Kuiper Belt.
"Like a parent maintaining the arc of a child on a swing with periodic pushes, Planet Nine nudges the orbits of distant Kuiper Belt objects such that their configuration with relation to the planet is preserved," the researchers said.
