"Dubbed 'Planet Y' by reseachers from Princeton University, this planet is said to be Earth-sized and rocky. The researchers were alerted to the possible planet after noticing that 50 objects in the Kuiper Belt - a region of icy objects beyond Neptune - were tilted on an unusual angle. 'We started trying to come up with explanations other than a planet that could explain the tilt, but what we found is that you actually need a planet there,' lead author Dr Amir Siraj told CNN."
"'This paper is not a discovery of a planet. But it's certainly the discovery of a puzzle for which a planet is a likely solution.' Since Pluto was axed from the list of planets, astronomers looking for a ninth planet have focused on the Kuiper Belt. This is a doughnut-shaped ring of icy objects, asteroids, and dwarf planets beyond Neptune that scientists believe was left over by the creation of the eight planets."
An Earth-sized rocky world labeled Planet Y may exist near the solar system's edge. Fifty Kuiper Belt objects display an unusual tilt that could be explained by a nearby planetary mass. The Kuiper Belt is a doughnut-shaped ring of icy objects, asteroids, and dwarf planets beyond Neptune that receives little sunlight, making distant bodies hard to detect with conventional telescopes. Hidden planets can be inferred from their gravitational effects on Kuiper Belt object orbits. Earlier hypotheses proposed a distant massive Planet X; Planet Y would be a closer, smaller ninth-planet contender.
Read at Mail Online
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