Events at Physics |
Taken together, these peculiar orbital patterns may point to the presence of an additional, as-yet-undetected planet. This object — Planet Nine — is predicted to have roughly five times the mass of Earth and to travel around the Sun on a distant, eccentric orbit with a period of approximately ten thousand years. In this talk, I will review the observational evidence that motivated the Planet Nine hypothesis, explain the dynamical mechanisms by which such a planet could sculpt the distant Solar System, and discuss current observational efforts and the prospects for its detection.