Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Planet X

Or perhaps, planet IX.

I’m just totally geeking out over the fact that scientists are theorizing that there’s a ninth planet in the solar system. And no, not Pluto, or any of the other dwarf planets that can’t clear their orbits of other celestial bodies.

Apparently, some of the smaller objects out in the far reaches of the solar system are moving in such a way that it seems that there has to be something huge having an effect on them. This mystery object is thought to be about ten times the size of Earth and is so far away that it could take fifteen thousand years to complete an orbit of the sun.

However, there are still a lot of questions, like how such a large planet could have formed so far away, or was it formed closer and then somehow got moved away? Or something else?

This is so cool. I love wondering what’s going on in outer space. I think there are a lot of good story ideas that could come from the existence of another planet in the solar system. What do you think about the “new” planet? Any ideas brewing about it?

8 comments:

  1. And with all of our telescopes, why are we just now discovering this planet?

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  2. I'm still mad about Pluto being demoted, but another planet out there would be really cool. Fifteen thousand years for one trip around the sun? Whoa.

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  3. If it's out there, it's worth seeing if a probe can reach it. I would prefer Pluto be returned to its original status, particularly given how many fascinating things the flyby showed of its surface.

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  4. It's the tail end planet that keeps all the others in order, eh? The big brother to Jupiter.

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  5. It is cool thinking the mystery planet is lurking out there all dark and cold. But I want to know about it now! 15K years to make it around the sun just once. The distances are staggering.

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  6. space kind of blows my mind. It's so HUGE. The size of it just overwhelms me completely.

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