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Pluto was relegated to be a non-entity, but there appears to be a new
ninth planet to take it's place ... or is it really a massive alien
mothership waiting to invade Earth?? ;-)

Some people said many years ago that Pluto's somewhat weird orbit meant
there had to be another planet or big object further out.

This is from the New Zealand Herald newspaper (22 January, 2016) ...

Space oddity
------------
Scientists have found evidence of a ninth planet in
the solar system which is travelling on a bizarre
elongated orbit. The body, which has been dubbed
'Planet Nine' is 10 times the mass of Earth and
takes between 10,000 and 20,000 years to orbit the
Sun.

It was found by researchers at the California
Institute of Technology who were puzzled as to why
13 objects in the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto were all
moving together as if being "lassooed" by the
gravity of a huge object. After running computer
simulations the found that only a massive planet
could be causing the strange movement.

Dr Mike Brown, who discovered evidence for the
planet with Dr Konstantin Batygin, said that it is
so large that there should be no debate about
whether it is a true planet. It gravitationally
dominates its neighbourhood of the solar system -
one of the key tests for planet classification.
Pluto used to be regarded as the ninth planet, but
was downgraded in 2006 to a dwarf planet and is now
known unceremoniously as asteroid number 134340.

The new planet dominates a region of space larger
than any of the known planets - a fact that Brown
says makes it "the most planety of the planets in
the whole solar system". He said, "There have only
been two true planets discovered since ancient times,
and this would be a third." Batygin added, "For the
first time in over 150 years, there is solid
evidence that the solar system's planetary census is
incomplete."

Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society,
said the planet would be cold and dark. "It's a very
long way away and our Sun would appear as a very
bright star. It would be like walking in bright
moonlight [on its] surface."

Only the planet's rough orbit is known, not the
precise location on that elliptical path.

- Telegraph Group Ltd.

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