Planet Nine Update

At www.scientificamerican.com/article/looking-for-planet-nine-astronomers-g… … sent in by Jovan this is an update on the search for planet 9 and why a group of astronomers think there is another planet out there beyond the orbit of Neptune, somewhere in the Kuiper Belt. There must be a very big something much further out – according to Brown and Betygin of Caltech. They speculate it is ten times the size of the earth and has a 20,000 year orbit. Indeed, if they fail to find it soon they are thinking it has an even more elongated orbit. The link provides an omnibus edition of the story from its beginning a couple of years ago. However, one has to bear in mind Planet 9 is still an hypothesis – and will remain so until a tiny spot of light is eventually caught by a space camera. If it fails to materialise the theory will die a death. Great prestige would be showered on these two astronomers if it turns out to be true.