Everyone knows about the eight planets in the solar system. But what if there were more? By looking at peculiarities in celestial objects and other planets, scientists have found that there may be a ninth planet, far beyond Neptune, Planet X.

Table of Contents:

• The First “Planet X”
• The Search Continues
• Is there a Ninth Planet?

An illustration of what Planet X may look like

The First “Planet X”

In 1915, Percival Lowell believed there was another planet beyond Neptune based on irregularities in Uranus’s orbit. Many astronomers believed this was just due to errors in the calculations. However, in 1930, a new planet was discovered, Pluto. Pluto is found in the Kuiper Belt, a large ring of asteroids and comets that orbits the Sun beyond Neptune. The discovery of Pluto made astronomers believe they found the solution to the irregularities Percival calculated. This belief was short-lived. It was later disproved after scientists learned more about Pluto and its small size, realizing that this was not the planet they were looking for. Pluto was not the real Planet X and was changed to be a dwarf planet, a celestial body smaller than a normal planet and unable to push other objects out of its path.

The Search Continues

Despite no concrete evidence, the search for Planet X is still ongoing. In 2016, some astronomers found disturbances and irregularities in Kuiper Belt objects. These objects seem to be clustering together, an effect of another object’s gravitational pull. Many large telescopes such as the Keck telescope in Hawaii still actively search for any sign of a large and distant planet. A new telescope with the mission of searching for the ninth planet is set to open in Chile. Despite the effort to search for it, another possibility proposed by some astronomers is that the planet does not exist at all. These scientists theorize that the small Kuiper Belt objects’ irregular orbit may just be due to their random distribution. Neither theory has been proved yet to be true.

The Keck Observatory and Telescopes

Is there a Ninth Planet?

Despite some significant scientific achievements and a few setbacks, the existence of Planet X still remains a mystery. While some astronomers believe it does not exist, others are more passionate in their search for an additional planet, utilizing telescopes and observatories to scan the dark night sky. Only time will tell if there truly is a discovery lurking in the deep, dark edges of our solar system.