- 7 hours ago
A startling claim is spreading across the internet: a massive hidden planet known as Nibiru may have finally been detected beyond Pluto. According to the latest reports, the mysterious object appears to be moving on a trajectory that brings it closer to the inner solar system — and possibly toward Earth. If these claims are true, it could be one of the most shocking astronomical discoveries ever announced. 🌌
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00:00Now, if Earth were the size of a nickel, Neptune would be about as big as a baseball.
00:05That's impressive, but it's nothing compared to the giant 9th planet that might be hiding out there.
00:12Now, our Planet 9's discovery saga might have finally come to an end.
00:16Turns out, the problem wasn't where we were looking, but how.
00:20And researchers might have just made the biggest solar system discovery in decades.
00:25You see, the idea of finding a planet beyond Neptune has been around for years now.
00:30I know, back in school, you probably learned that the 9th planet was Pluto.
00:35But forget about Pluto, it's been demoted to a less fancy category since 2006.
00:40What I'm talking about is the Planet 9.
00:44A hypothetical giant planet that could be our cosmic neighbor.
00:48We've never actually seen it, but scientists are pretty sure it's out there somewhere,
00:53hiding in the outer solar system.
00:56To explain why they think that, we need a sheet of paper.
00:59Hey, here's one.
01:00We place a coin on it, and suddenly, it starts to move.
01:04Unless we're talking about some kind of superpower,
01:07there's no way this coin is moving on its own, right?
01:10So, you figure someone must be on the other side, holding a magnet and moving it around.
01:16You can't see the magnet, but it explains why the coin is moving.
01:20That's kind of what's happening with Planet 9.
01:23We can't see it, we can't prove it, yet.
01:25But its existence could explain the strange movements we see out there in space.
01:30For example, the planets in our solar system orbit on a flat plane
01:35that's tilted about 6 degrees relative to the Sun.
01:39But why 6 degrees?
01:41Well, no one really knows for sure.
01:43Some scientists think those orbits might be slightly tilted because of the pull of a 9th planet.
01:48Its existence could also explain the unusual paths of smaller objects in the distant Kuiper Belt,
01:55a region full of icy debris that stretches far beyond Neptune's orbit.
02:00Back in 2016, researchers from Caltech published a study about Planet 9.
02:06They suggested it could have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and follow a highly elongated path.
02:12That's a scientific way of saying it takes forever to make one trip around the Sun.
02:17Because of that, it would be located in the outer solar system.
02:21I mean, far, far away.
02:23It would orbit the Sun about 20 to 30 times farther out than our most distant planet, Neptune.
02:30According to scientists, Planet 9 would take up to 20,000 Earth years to complete just one full orbit around
02:36the Sun.
02:37Since it's crazy far out there, it's almost impossible to see it.
02:41So, as cool as this hypothesis sounds, we've never found solid evidence that Planet 9 actually exists.
02:48But we might be pretty close.
02:51In May 2025, a team at National Tsinghua University might have made one of the most exciting solar system discoveries
02:59ever.
02:59Alright, so there's a hypothesis that Planet 9 hasn't been discovered yet because we haven't been using the right method.
03:07This new study raises an interesting question.
03:10What if Planet 9 actually looks brighter in infrared light than it does in visible light?
03:16Let me explain.
03:17Scientists have been trying to spot Planet 9 by its reflected light.
03:21But here's the problem.
03:22To spot it in visible wavelengths, sunlight would have to travel all the way out to Planet 9, bounce off
03:29its surface, and then travel all the way back to Earth.
03:32If a Neptune-sized planet were about 10 times farther away than Neptune, it would look about 10,000 times
03:39fainter.
03:40But a planet's own thermal radiation, I mean, its heat, only has to make a one-way trip.
03:46So in infrared light, Planet 9 would only be about 100 times fainter.
03:50That's why it makes more sense to look for it using space-based infrared telescopes.
03:56And that's the idea behind this new study.
03:58The team started digging through archives, searching for old infrared sky survey data.
04:04And they pulled it from two main sources.
04:06First, IRIS, a satellite launched in the 80s that scanned the sky for almost a year.
04:12Then, the Japanese satellite AKERI, another infrared observatory that operated between 2006 and 2011.
04:19So basically, they compared objects that showed up in IRIS database and noticed which ones had moved by the time
04:27AKERI took its observations.
04:29And by doing that, the researchers found something incredible.
04:33An object that might just be our long-lost ninth planet.
04:37Because if something moves, it could be a planet orbiting the Sun, right?
04:41And yeah, they did find some celestial objects showing tiny movements.
04:46But before jumping to conclusions, they had to rule out the parallax effect.
04:51And that's something really important when we're talking about solar system discoveries.
04:55To explain it, I need you to do something.
04:58Hold one finger in front of your face.
05:00Close one eye.
05:01And now switch.
05:03Your finger seems to move a tiny bit, right?
05:05That's because you're looking at it from a slightly different angle, from one eyeball to the other.
05:11The same thing happens when we look out into space from Earth.
05:14Since our planet orbits the Sun, our view of very distant objects shifts just a little.
05:20That effect is called parallax.
05:23My point is, because of this effect, planet 9 would appear to move across the sky as Earth goes around
05:29the Sun.
05:29On any given day, it might seem to be in one spot.
05:33But six months later, when Earth is on the opposite side of the Sun, it would look like it shifted.
05:39Six months after that, it would seem to move back again.
05:43Scientists had to account for parallax.
05:45Actually, they had to remove its effects.
05:48So the team looked at images of the sky taken on the same date every year.
05:52Because on that same date, Earth is always in the same spot in its orbit.
05:57That means if planet 9 is real, it would show up in the same place in those images every year.
06:03No fake wiggle from parallax, just its real position.
06:07This careful search led them to a single object, a tiny dot in the infrared data.
06:13This strange little spot had moved slightly along its orbit around the Sun over the 23 years between Iris and
06:20Icari.
06:21Wait, could that be it?
06:23Did astronomers just confirm a hidden planet?
06:26Well, maybe.
06:28But don't get too excited.
06:30The data we have on its motion over that time is not enough to figure out its full orbit.
06:35So for now, we still can't say for sure if this mysterious object is really planet 9.
06:42It's definitely a strong candidate, though.
06:44Based on how bright the object appears, the team estimates it could be pretty massive.
06:50And that came as a big surprise.
06:52You see, previous NASA research ruled out any Jupiter-sized or Saturn-sized planets hiding out there.
06:59But a smaller world would have gone undetected.
07:02So the scientists were looking for something just a bit bigger than Earth.
07:06But it turns out, this mysterious planet might be more massive than Neptune.
07:10Now that they've discovered Planet 9, supposedly, at least, the plan is to keep tracking it and collecting new data.
07:18But don't think the road ahead will be easy.
07:20Because since the Icari satellite spotted it for the first time, that object didn't just sit still.
07:26Well, it's been moving slowly through space ever since.
07:29So now, scientists need to use regular telescopes on Earth to look for it again.
07:34And here's the tricky part.
07:36They're not exactly sure where it moved to.
07:39So they have to search a pretty big patch of the sky.
07:42And so far, no matching object has been found.
07:45Whether this really turns out to be the Planet 9 discovery or not, only time will tell.
07:51For now, its existence is still up for debate.
07:54But with powerful new technology on the way, like NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope,
08:00astronomers are more determined than ever to uncover the truth.
08:04And if Planet 9 really is out there, hiding in the cold, dark edges of our solar system,
08:10it's running out of places to hide.
08:14Have you heard about Planet 9?
08:17No, not Pluto.
08:18Pluto. We're talking about something lurking on the outskirts of the solar system.
08:23A mysterious planet that exists in our solar system that we haven't yet discovered.
08:30We've been looking for it for years.
08:32But finally, it seems like scientists found a key to solve this mystery.
08:39Planet 9 is a hypothetical planet.
08:41Astronomers have been on the hunt for it for quite some time now.
08:45But it's so elusive that they've only been able to piece together a few details about its potential characteristics.
08:54One thing we do know is that Planet 9 has to be a massive world,
08:58possibly up to 10 times the mass of Earth.
09:02That's one big planet.
09:04It's also thought to be a distant wanderer, hanging out somewhere between Neptune and Pluto.
09:11Some scientists think that Planet 9 might actually be a mini-Neptune,
09:16with a thick, gaseous atmosphere and a rocky core.
09:21Others speculate that it could be an icy world,
09:24with a solid, frozen surface and a thick layer of hydrogen and helium gas.
09:31Of course, since we haven't actually found Planet 9 yet,
09:35we can't say for sure what it's like.
09:38We're not even sure that it even exists.
09:40Some say it's just a myth, like the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny,
09:45but others are convinced that it's out there somewhere.
09:48And at the end of the day, we're not entirely sure if Planet 9 is even a planet.
09:53It might be a special kind of black hole, or made entirely of dark matter.
10:00The search for Planet 9 began in the early 21st century,
10:04when a group of astronomers realized that something wasn't quite right
10:08with the outer reaches of our solar system.
10:11They noticed that some distant objects, known as trans-Neptunian objects,
10:16were behaving in unexpected ways.
10:19Trans-Neptunian objects, or TNOs,
10:22are like the cosmic version of those items in the back of your fridge
10:26that you forgot about for years.
10:28They're small, icy bodies that hang out in the Kuiper Belt, beyond Neptune.
10:34So, scientists noticed that these guys started behaving weirdly.
10:38At first, they thought it might be a fluke.
10:41But, as they dug deeper,
10:44they began to suspect that there was a ninth planet lurking out there.
10:49Why haven't we discovered it yet, you ask?
10:52Well, it may be because of Planet 9's weird orbit.
10:56All the other eight planets orbit the Sun in roughly the same plane,
11:00which is like a flat disk.
11:03However, our hypothetical friend's orbit is different.
11:06It might be tilted and move in a different direction compared to the other planets.
11:12Its orbit might also be stretched out like an oval,
11:16rather than being nearly circular like usual.
11:19Because of this,
11:21Planet 9 might spend most of its time far from the Sun,
11:24like a true introvert.
11:26It only comes relatively close to the inner solar system every few thousand years.
11:31This would make it super faint and hard to spot.
11:34So, the only way we may discover it is by studying the gravitational effects it has on our solar system.
11:43And this isn't the first time astronomers have gone looking for a new planet.
11:48Back in the 19th century,
11:49there was a similar hunt for a hypothetical,
11:52Planet X.
11:54But this time,
11:55they were armed with much better technology
11:58and a much better sense of humor.
12:00They began calling their elusive quarry,
12:03Planet 9,
12:04which was much catchier than Planet X.
12:07They even came up with a hashtag for the search,
12:10Pluto Lives.
12:12It was a reference to the fact that Pluto had been kicked from the planet gang
12:16and some astronomers were eager to find a new planet to take its place.
12:20But the search for Planet 9 has been no easy task.
12:24It's like trying to find a lost sock in the laundry basket the size of a football stadium.
12:31It's so far away and so faint that even the most powerful telescopes can't see it.
12:37Instead, astronomers have had to rely on indirect evidence,
12:41like the strange orbits of TNOs,
12:43to try to figure out where it might be.
12:47Some scientists have even supposed that it might be a wandering rogue planet,
12:52which would explain why it's so hard to find.
12:55But they haven't given up hope.
12:57Till this day,
12:58they're scouring the skies using all sorts of high-tech telescopes and fancy algorithms
13:03to try and spot this elusive planet.
13:07And fear not, dear curious human,
13:10because it looks like after so many years of research,
13:13we may have finally found the key to solve this mystery.
13:19Astronomer Man Ho Chan from Hong Kong has a theory.
13:22He believes that Planet 9 could have a bevy of moons.
13:27That's right.
13:28Not only is it a giant planet hiding out in the depths of space,
13:32but it's also a bit of a hoarder.
13:36Moons are all the rage in the outer solar system.
13:39In fact, almost every planet here has at least one moon,
13:42except for Mercury and Venus.
13:44Earth has just one, which is kind of sad if you think about it.
13:48Even non-planetary bodies like Pluto have at least a couple of moons.
13:53A bit unfair, isn't it?
13:55Anyway, taking this into account,
13:57let's go moon picking with Planet 9.
14:00The region between the rock-filled Kuiper Belt and the rock-filled Oort Cloud,
14:04where this planet is predicted to be,
14:07should be ripe for the picking.
14:09Chan made some calculations and determined
14:11that it would be stranger if the elusive planet didn't have any satellites.
14:17According to his calculations,
14:19an object the mass of Planet 9
14:21should capture at least 20 TNOs as large as almost 90 miles across.
14:26It's like our mysterious planet is playing Cosmic Pokémon with these guys.
14:31So, what if Planet 9 has moons?
14:34Would that make any difference?
14:36Kinda yes.
14:38They could give us some indirect clues to finally locate this mysterious planet.
14:43Now, you might be thinking,
14:45how in the cosmos can we possibly spot these teeny tiny moons?
14:50It's not like they're going to wave a giant flag
14:53or blast some Beyonce tunes to get our attention.
14:56Well, apparently the key lies in something called tidal heating.
15:01Tidal heating might sound like a new workout trend,
15:04but it's a real scientific phenomenon.
15:07It happens when two celestial bodies are close together.
15:10You see, tides aren't just about the rise and fall of the ocean.
15:15They're also the result of gravity pulling unevenly on a planet or moon.
15:20When a planet and a moon are close enough to each other,
15:23their gravity pulls on each other,
15:25creating a bit of a football shape.
15:27And as these celestial bodies move around each other,
15:30they shift shape and generate friction inside,
15:34which produces heat.
15:37Wow!
15:38Now, who knew that Planet 9 could have a workout routine?
15:41Perhaps we should start calling it Gym Planet instead.
15:46Anyway, if Planet 9 has any moons,
15:48the gravitational pull from these moons
15:50would cause it to change shape constantly,
15:53generating heat in the process.
15:56And we might be able to detect this mysterious planet
15:59through the heat produced by those moons,
16:01even though it gives off no other signals.
16:04Now, before you get too excited,
16:07finding them won't be a walk in the park.
16:09They're incredibly small and would be very far away from us.
16:13But hey, nothing worth discovering ever came easy, right?
16:17Scientists are optimistic that with the right technology,
16:20they can spot this telltale sign.
16:22It will be easier for us to spot them with fancy instruments,
16:27like modern telescopes.
16:28Talk about cool friends to have, right?
16:31Sure, the process of finding it may be difficult and time-consuming,
16:36but the potential payoff is huge.
16:38Finding this planet could explain a lot of the strange behavior
16:42observed in TNOs, the Kuiper Belt, and beyond.
16:45As we've already mentioned,
16:48they've been acting super weird lately,
16:50tilting and aligning in suspicious ways.
16:53If this planet doesn't actually exist,
16:56we have yet to explain what is the reason for this strange behavior.
17:01In any case, the search for Planet 9
17:04is one of the most exciting and intriguing quests in modern astronomy.
17:08It's like a cosmic scavenger hunt,
17:10and everyone's invited to join in on the fun.
17:13So, grab your telescopes and let's go planet hunting.
17:17Who knows?
17:17Maybe we'll find it sooner than we think.
17:22Look at this giant donut-shaped region far away from Earth,
17:26beyond the orbit of Neptune.
17:28We're talking about a distance of more than 2.5 billion miles.
17:32It's the Kuiper Belt,
17:33and something eerie and bizarre is happening there.
17:38Dwarf planets and other small objects dwelling there
17:41refuse to cluster together.
17:43Instead, they follow particular orbits, which is weird.
17:47The reason might be a large, mysterious planet hiding beyond Pluto.
17:52Its gravity might be messing up the orbits of those Kuiper space bodies.
18:00Hear me out.
18:01Our solar system is made up of the sun and everything that goes around it
18:05because of the star's strong gravity.
18:07This includes the eight main planets,
18:10Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
18:15There are also smaller things like moons, asteroids, and Pluto.
18:20For a long time, people thought Pluto was the ninth planet.
18:24But when it was reclassified as a dwarf planet,
18:28scientists started looking for a new planet X.
18:31Did they have a thing about odd numbers or what?
18:34And guess what?
18:35Some really think there might be a big, icy planet
18:39hiding far, far away beyond Neptune.
18:42This mystery planet is often called Planet 9.
18:47Now, Planet 9 hasn't been seen yet.
18:50But scientists think it might be out there
18:52because of some tiny, far away space rocks called etnos
18:56that move following bizarre, confusing paths.
19:00These paths seem to be grouped together
19:02and tilted in a way that doesn't happen by chance.
19:05This could mean there's a hidden planet
19:07pulling them into place with its gravity.
19:09If Planet 9 is real,
19:12it might be 5 to 10 times heavier than Earth.
19:15It would also be super far away,
19:18hundreds of times farther from the Sun than Earth is.
19:21Over the years,
19:22scientists have guessed different distances for its orbit.
19:25And the newest guess in 2025
19:27says it could be about 290 times farther from the Sun than Earth.
19:33There are some cool ideas about where Planet 9 came from.
19:37It might have started as a big planet
19:40that Jupiter once kicked out of the inner solar system.
19:43Or it might have come from another star
19:45or even wandered around space on its own
19:48before getting caught by the Sun's gravity.
19:51Even though scientists have looked really hard
19:53using powerful telescopes,
19:55no one has actually seen Planet 9 yet.
19:58And so far, its existence is still just a theory.
20:03But recently, a group of researchers tried something clever.
20:06They used data from two special space surveys
20:09called ERAS and Akari.
20:12These two looked at the sky in invisible light,
20:15far infrared, about 23 years apart.
20:19Which is helpful because Planet 9
20:21is supposed to move very slowly.
20:24The team focused on a special list from Akari,
20:28which is better at finding faint, moving things in space.
20:31They guessed how bright Planet 9 might be
20:34and how fast it might move
20:36based on how big, far away, and cold it could be.
20:41Then they looked for matching blips in the sky
20:44that were seen by both ERAS and Akari,
20:47but not in the exact same spot.
20:49That's because a real planet
20:51would have moved a little over 23 years,
20:53and they indeed found 13 possible matches
20:57that could be Planet 9.
20:59Their estimations were based
21:00on how far away the object seemed to be,
21:03500 to 700 times farther from the Sun than Earth,
21:07and how heavy it might be,
21:09which is 7 to 17 times Earth's mass.
21:13After looking very carefully at all the images,
21:16they narrowed it down to one really good candidate.
21:19The two detections weren't in the same spot in both surveys,
21:23and the way they appeared in the Akari map
21:26matched what you'd expect from a slow-moving object.
21:29It showed up on one date
21:31and wasn't there six months earlier,
21:33but of course, there was a catch.
21:36Apparently, the old data isn't good enough
21:38to figure out the exact path of the potential planet.
21:41So, the team wants to do new follow-up observations
21:45using a special camera called DCAM,
21:48which is really good at spotting faint, moving objects.
21:52That way, they can find out
21:54if this candidate is really Planet 9.
21:57Additionally, it can help us learn more
21:59about how our solar system works
22:01and how it formed.
22:03If Planet 9 is ever discovered,
22:06it would totally change the way
22:07we understand our solar system.
22:09It could explain why some far-out space rocks
22:12in the Kuiper Belt tilt weirdly.
22:14The thing is,
22:16most planets go around the Sun
22:17in a flat-ish circle,
22:19but those far-away objects
22:21are tilted about 20 degrees.
22:23Planet 9 might be the reason why.
22:26Next, we'd probably find out
22:28why those tilted objects
22:29seem to point the same way.
22:31Their orbits are grouped together
22:33in one direction.
22:34A big, hidden planet's gravity
22:36could be hurting them like sheep.
22:40There are also some strange tilted objects
22:43super far away.
22:44They don't make sense
22:45unless something big,
22:46like Planet 9,
22:47is tugging on them.
22:48A few space rocks orbit the Sun
22:51backward between the big planets,
22:53which is kinda the wrong way.
22:55That's super weird
22:56unless something big
22:57is messing with them.
22:59Some far-out Kuiper Belt objects
23:01keep crossing Neptune's path
23:03and haven't been flung away.
23:05That's because Planet 9
23:07might be helping keep their orbits stable
23:09over a long time.
23:12Another cool thing
23:14is that if Planet 9 existed,
23:16it would be a super-Earth,
23:17a kind of planet
23:18we see a lot around other stars,
23:21but we don't have
23:22in our solar system yet.
23:24So finding one here
23:25would make our solar system
23:27more like the others out there.
23:30Throughout history,
23:32people have been wondering
23:32if there could be hidden planets
23:34far beyond Neptune,
23:36even before Pluto was found.
23:40Back in 1880,
23:42a guy named George Forbes
23:44guessed there might be
23:45two unknown planets
23:46way out there,
23:48one about 100 times farther
23:50from the Sun than Earth,
23:51and the other
23:52about 300 times farther.
23:55He thought these mystery planets
23:57might be pulling on some comets
23:58and changing their orbits,
24:00kind of like how Jupiter does
24:02with the comets near it.
24:04In 2004,
24:06scientists found
24:07a weird little world
24:08called Sedna.
24:09It had a strange path
24:10around the Sun
24:11that didn't seem to be affected
24:13by any of the known planets.
24:15Its closest point to the Sun,
24:17called perihelion,
24:18is way too far
24:19for Neptune to be the reason.
24:22This made some scientists wonder
24:24if Sedna got pushed
24:25into its path
24:26by a hidden planet,
24:27maybe even something
24:28as big as Earth
24:30or bigger.
24:30others thought
24:32maybe it was a star
24:33that flew by
24:34a long time ago
24:35or another star
24:36that formed near ours.
24:39Then, in 2014,
24:41another odd object
24:42was discovered.
24:43It had a very similar orbit
24:45to Sedna,
24:46which made people
24:47even more suspicious
24:48that there could be
24:49something big out there
24:50messing with their paths.
24:53This kicked off
24:54a new round
24:55of the Planet X
24:56or Planet 9 hunt.
24:58At a meeting in 2012,
25:00a scientist named
25:01Rodney Gomez
25:02said that maybe
25:03there was a big,
25:04hidden planet
25:05around 1,500 times
25:06farther from the Sun
25:07than Earth.
25:09He thought
25:10it could explain
25:11the orbits
25:11of other odd objects,
25:13like some far-out comets
25:14and centaurs,
25:15small bodies that wander
25:17among the giant planets.
25:19At that time,
25:20those who supported
25:21the Planet 9 theory
25:22believed that
25:23if it existed,
25:24it would move around the Sun
25:25in a huge,
25:26stretched-out circle
25:27called an elliptical orbit.
25:29It would be about
25:31400 to 800 times farther
25:33from the Sun
25:33than Earth is,
25:35about 13 to 26 times farther
25:37than Neptune.
25:39If it really had
25:40that kind of orbit,
25:41it would take around
25:4210,000 to 20,000 years
25:44to go around the Sun
25:45just once.
25:47Plus,
25:47if it indeed orbited the Sun,
25:49it wouldn't follow
25:50the same flat path
25:52as the other planets.
25:53Its path would be tilted
25:54by about 15 degrees
25:56to 25 degrees.
25:58The farthest point
25:59in its orbit,
26:00called Aphelion,
26:01would be in the direction
26:02of the Taurus constellation.
26:04As for the closest point,
26:05it would point
26:06towards Serpens,
26:08Ophiuchus,
26:08or Libra.
26:10As for the composition
26:11of Planet 9,
26:12it would probably be
26:13a lot like Uranus
26:14or Neptune.
26:15It would have
26:16a thick atmosphere
26:17made of hydrogen
26:17and helium,
26:18and it would be
26:19super cold,
26:20negative 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
26:24Its core would be
26:25made of iron,
26:26and its middle layer
26:27would be full of rock
26:28and water ice.
26:29At the same time,
26:30if the planet was
26:31smaller and denser,
26:33then it might be
26:33more like Earth,
26:34with a rocky surface
26:36instead of a gassy one.
26:38According to a scientist
26:39named Mike Brown,
26:41if Planet 9 was real,
26:43a space probe
26:44would reach it
26:44in about 20 years
26:46if we used
26:46a powerful slingshot path
26:48around the sun.
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