- 2 months ago
Astronomers have detected an unusual object in the outer Solar System, sparking fresh speculation about whether it could be linked to the long-debated idea of "Nibiru." While scientists continue to analyze its orbit and nature, the discovery has reignited discussions about mysterious worlds that may exist far beyond the known planets. Could this newly observed object rewrite our understanding of the Solar System—or is there a far more ordinary explanation waiting to be confirmed?
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00:05A massive hidden planet may be moving somewhere beyond Neptune right now.
00:11Scientists still haven't seen it directly, but multiple studies suggest something enormous is affecting the outer solar system through gravity
00:19alone.
00:20And immediately, one ancient name started spreading online again, Nibiru.
00:27According to one of the most controversial theories on the internet, Nibiru is a hidden planet connected to the mysterious
00:35Anunnaki,
00:36powerful beings described in ancient Sumerian texts thousands of years ago.
00:42Some people believe this object periodically enters the inner solar system,
00:47and that ancient civilizations may have known about it long before modern astronomy existed.
00:52Normally, theories like this would be ignored completely.
00:57But the problem is that astronomers really are searching for an undiscovered planet right now.
01:04The story starts far beyond Pluto, in the outer edges of the solar system.
01:09Over the last several years, scientists noticed something strange about the orbits of distant icy objects beyond Neptune.
01:19Instead of moving randomly, several objects appeared clustered together in ways that suggested the gravity of a much larger unseen
01:28body might be affecting them.
01:30This eventually led researchers to propose the existence of a possible hidden world known as Planet Nine.
01:37Some estimates suggest this object, if it exists, could be between five and ten times more massive than Earth and
01:45orbit hundreds of times farther from the Sun than our planet does.
01:49At that distance, it would reflect almost no sunlight, making direct detection extremely difficult even for modern telescopes.
01:58And that is exactly why the Nibiru theory exploded again online.
02:04Because according to older alternative theories, ancient civilizations already knew about a hidden planet long before scientists started discussing Planet
02:14Nine.
02:14The civilization most often connected to this mystery is the Sumerians.
02:20More than 5000 years ago, the Sumerians built one of the earliest advanced civilizations in human history in Mesopotamia.
02:29They developed writing, mathematics, astronomy, large cities, and detailed mythological systems.
02:37Within many of their ancient stories appear references to powerful beings called the Anunnaki.
02:44Mainstream historians interpret the Anunnaki as mythological deities connected to creation stories, kingship, and religion.
02:53But alternative interpretations claim these beings came from the sky and were associated with a wandering planet called Nibiru.
03:02According to the theory, the Anunnaki periodically traveled between Earth and this hidden world.
03:08The idea became especially popular because of certain ancient carvings and symbols.
03:14Some Sumerian artwork appears to show celestial patterns, unusual objects, and star imagery that internet theories often describe as evidence
03:24of advanced astronomical knowledge.
03:26One of the most famous examples involves the so-called Sumerian bags, strange hand-held objects carved into stone reliefs
03:35thousands of years ago.
03:37Similar shapes also appear in unrelated ancient cultures, which only made the mystery grow online.
03:45Supporters of the Nibiru theory claim these symbols represent lost knowledge connected to the Anunnaki.
03:52The most extreme versions of the story go even further.
03:56Some claim the Anunnaki genetically altered early humans, helped build early civilizations, or left encoded astronomical information hidden inside myths
04:07and ancient texts.
04:09There is no scientific evidence supporting those claims.
04:13But what makes the theory difficult to completely dismiss online is the strange overlap between ancient mythology and modern astronomy.
04:22Because scientists really are searching for a large unseen object in the outer solar system.
04:29And every time new research about Planet Nine appears, the internet immediately reconnects it to Nibiru.
04:37At the same time, astronomers continue finding unusual objects beyond Neptune.
04:44Some dwarf planets and icy bodies follow orbits that still do not have perfect explanations.
04:50Researchers believe a hidden planet remains one possible answer.
04:56Powerful observatories are currently scanning deep space, searching for faint movement patterns that could finally reveal whether Planet Nine exists.
05:06So far, nothing matching the dramatic descriptions of Nibiru has ever been confirmed.
05:12No giant rogue planet is heading toward Earth.
05:16No evidence of extraterrestrial visitors has been discovered in ancient Mesopotamia.
05:22But the theory refuses to disappear for one reason.
05:26An ancient civilization described powerful beings descending from the heavens.
05:31Modern astronomers believe another massive world may still be hidden somewhere in the darkness beyond Neptune.
05:38And for millions of people online, those two stories became connected in a way that is now impossible to separate.
05:48At the edge of our solar system, there is a cold and mysterious region known as the Oort cloud.
05:54It is a hypothetical vast area of icy space objects surrounding the sun.
06:00It is believed to lie far, far away from our star, from 2,000 to 5,000 astronomical units.
06:08For comparison, Pluto's orbit carries the planet between 30 and 50 astronomical units from the sun.
06:16And there, in this freezing emptiness, a rogue planet may be hiding right at the moment.
06:22At least, that is what new research has recently suggested.
06:26Rogue planets are called this way because they don't orbit around any star.
06:31They wander the galaxy alone, totally untethered.
06:35Without stars, they don't have days or nights.
06:39Only eternal darkness.
06:43Rogue planets are usually kicked out of their planetary systems, doomed to a solitary existence of circling the center of
06:51the galaxy on their own.
06:52Of the thousands of planets scientists have detected outside of our solar system, only a dozen or so are starless
07:00and cruising on their own.
07:01At the same time, there might be billions or even trillions of rogue planets wandering around our galaxy.
07:09If these estimations are true, it might mean that the Milky Way contains more free-floating planets than stars.
07:17Anyway, in 1907, one astronomer started a search for Planet X.
07:22It's a hypothetical giant planet moving around the sun beyond the orbit of Neptune.
07:28The scientist was convinced that this planet existed because he had observed some irregularities in the orbits of Uranus and
07:35Neptune.
07:36His idea led to the discovery of Pluto in 1930.
07:40But the dwarf planet was too small to have any serious gravitational impact on the orbit of Neptune, let alone
07:49Uranus.
07:50These days, the Planet X theory is largely considered to be discredited.
07:55But it hasn't stopped astronomers from searching for planets in the far reaches of our solar system.
08:02And shockingly, a new study claims there might be one or even more out there, but much, much further away
08:11than predicted.
08:12An international team of scientists has recently simulated the unstable celestial mechanisms of the early solar system.
08:21They've discovered that there's a possibility that a few planet-sized bodies might have come to rest in the Oort
08:29cloud.
08:29You see, about 4.5 billion years ago, when the solar system was just forming, it was a hectic and
08:37unsettled place.
08:39Gravity sent debris from the cooling protoplanetary dust cloud hurtling around like cosmic tennis balls.
08:47From time to time, large chunks of this debris, even planet-sized ones, were sent flying far enough to escape
08:55the sun's gravity altogether.
08:56Such pieces of debris turned into rogue planets.
09:01Researchers have seen such space wanderers in distant exoplanetary systems.
09:06But according to them, there's a 0.5% chance that one or more of those wayward planets formed in
09:14the solar system and ended up in the Oort cloud after drifting away from the sun.
09:19At the same time, it's slightly more likely that a rogue Neptune-like planet was snagged by the sun's gravity
09:27from another planetary system.
09:29And then, this planet came to rest somewhere in the Oort cloud.
09:35The chances that this scenario is true reach 7%.
09:39If this turns out to be the case, then a space body similar to planet X might indeed be hiding
09:46out there, on the outskirts of our solar system.
09:49The only problem is that it would still be too far away to have any impact on Neptune's orbit.
09:56In any case, most researchers are convinced that the Oort cloud is made up of a collection of way smaller
10:02icy objects.
10:04But given the distance to the Oort cloud and its enormous size, we may never really figure out what is
10:10lurking out there.
10:16Across millennia, scattered among clay tablets, sacred scrolls, and whispered myths, humanity has preserved haunting tales of a celestial anomaly.
10:31A rogue planet, a cosmic saboteur whose rare appearance heralds disaster and upheaval.
10:37The Sumerians called it Nibiru, the planet of crossing.
10:43Egyptians feared it as the destroyer.
10:46Biblical texts knew it as the wormwood star.
10:49Are these merely the colorful myths of ancient peoples?
10:52Or are they fragmented memories of an all-too-real cosmic threat?
10:58Modern science, once quick to dismiss such legends, is now forced to reconsider.
11:02In 2016, astronomers Constantin Battigan and Mike Brown from Caltech presented mathematical evidence suggesting the existence of a massive planet
11:12at the far edge of our solar system.
11:15Planet Nine.
11:16Their calculations describe a world five to ten times the mass of Earth.
11:22On a highly elongated orbit that takes between 10,000 and 20,000 years to complete a single revolution around
11:31the sun.
11:32Here's where ancient myth and modern astrophysics begin to blur.
11:36Sumerian cuneiform tablets, dating as far back as the 4th millennium BCE, contain astonishingly accurate astronomical data.
11:47They describe a solar system of 12 celestial bodies, including a mysterious 12th planet, Nibiru.
11:55How did ancient people know about Neptune, discovered only in 1846, or Pluto in 1930?
12:04Were they simply guessing, or did they remember something we've forgotten?
12:09One of the most controversial voices in this debate is researcher Zechariah Sitchin.
12:15He spent decades interpreting ancient Mesopotamian texts and proposed a radical theory.
12:22That Nibiru is a habitable world with a sweeping elliptical orbit, home to an advanced race known as the Anunnaki,
12:31beings who once visited Earth.
12:33Mainstream academia has rejected Sitchin's translations, but the uncanny parallels between his claims and recent astronomical findings are hard to
12:46ignore.
12:47Let's focus on what the data tells us.
12:50Something is warping the orbits of distant objects in the Kuiper Belt, a vast icy region beyond Neptune.
12:58These objects behave as if being shepherded by a massive, unseen force.
13:04The dwarf planet Sedna, for example, follows a wildly unusual orbit that can't be explained by known gravitational influences.
13:15And then there's the Kuiper Cliff, an abrupt drop-off in the number of objects beyond 50 astronomical units.
13:23What's causing it, something or someone?
13:27These anomalies have left astronomers scratching their heads,
13:32and have fueled growing speculation that a massive, unseen planet is hiding in the dark outskirts of our solar system.
13:43Ancient texts from multiple civilizations describe apocalyptic upheavals linked to a celestial intruder.
13:52The Egyptian Ipuwer Papyrus eerily recounts plagues and chaos.
13:58The river is blood, the Earth turned upside down, days are shrouded in darkness.
14:05The Babylonian Epic of Era speaks of a time when the stars left their appointed paths.
14:11These aren't just poetic metaphors.
14:15They're historical shockwaves echoing from a forgotten trauma.
14:20So what happens if Nibiru, or Planet Nine, makes its next approach?
14:26Even without a direct collision, the consequences could be catastrophic.
14:30Its gravity might tilt Earth's axis, triggering sudden climate shifts.
14:38It could awaken tectonic fault lines and stir dormant volcanoes.
14:43Disturbed asteroid belts might send deadly space rocks hurtling toward us.
14:49It could disrupt our magnetosphere, disabling electronics and satellites.
14:54But perhaps the most chilling aspect of this theory is the cycle.
14:59Sumerian texts suggest that Nibiru returns roughly every 3600 years.
15:05If this is true, its last passage might have occurred around 1600 BCE.
15:11A time curiously aligned with the collapse of Bronze Age civilizations.
15:17A period marked by mass migrations, natural disasters and inexplicable cultural decline.
15:24Was this coincidence or consequence?
15:29The clock might be ticking again.
15:32Today, the hunt for Planet Nine continues, using the world's most powerful telescopes
15:38and cutting edge simulations.
15:41We stand on the edge of either confirming the greatest myth ever told,
15:46or revealing that ancient peoples tried, in the only language they had, to warn us.
15:53It may not bear the name Nibiru.
15:56It may not carry golden tablets or alien emissaries.
16:00But if it exists, its return will reshape everything we think we know about history,
16:06science, and our place in the cosmos.
16:10One thing is certain.
16:12Our solar system is far from tamed.
16:15It harbors secrets in its coldest, darkest corners.
16:19Riddles older than civilization itself.
16:22And perhaps, just perhaps, the old stories were never stories at all.
16:28Maybe they were prophecies.
16:30Maybe they were the echo of survivors.
16:33Maybe the star of change is already on its way.
16:42Attention, Earthlings!
16:44Yes, that would include you.
16:45Scientists have discovered a new member of the solar system.
16:49We officially have a new dwarf planet orbiting well beyond Neptune.
16:53But that's not all.
16:55Despite being small and unremarkable, this object, called 2017-OF-201, I know it's a goofy name,
17:03might hold the key information about the speculated existence of Planet 9.
17:08Or, better said, it spoils the fun because instead of helping us find Planet 9,
17:13it could be the first tangible evidence that the theoretical ninth major planet was just that, a theory.
17:20But first, what exactly are dwarf planets? And why is this discovery so important?
17:27Well, in the early 21st century, researchers gained better telescopes and began discovering smaller, weirder celestial objects.
17:35It started with Eris in 2003.
17:38But the discovery of additional similar bodies led to Pluto losing its status as a, quote, true planet.
17:45To proudly carry the name of a planet, a space rock must check off three boxes.
17:50It must orbit the sun, not another planet, like a moon would.
17:54It must be massive enough for its gravity to make it round.
17:58And it needs to be gravitationally dominant in its orbit.
18:01In other words, an object should be able to clear out most other objects in its path
18:06by absorbing them, slinging them away, or influencing them in some other way.
18:12Like paying them off.
18:13Hey, just kidding.
18:15Imagine a giant, powerful truck driving in its own lane, pushing smaller cars aside.
18:20Hey, sounds like my commute.
18:22Although Pluto is orbiting the sun and has the needed elliptical appearance,
18:27it's in the Kuiper belt, a region full of icy objects.
18:31Because it can't clear its orbit, researchers realized that Pluto was not that different from many other similar bodies
18:38known as trans-Neptunian objects or TNOs.
18:41There are well over 5,000 known TNOs out there, with only 1,000 being officially numbered.
18:48Meaning they've been studied enough to have their orbits confirmed.
18:51Now here's where it gets interesting.
18:53A while ago, scientists noted a pattern.
18:56Many of these minor planets shared similar paths and tilts.
19:00This inspired a theory that those objects were influenced by some still undiscovered Planet 9,
19:06also known as Planet X.
19:08The proposed super-Earth would have a mass 5 to 10 times greater than Earth's.
19:13It would orbit far on the outskirts, possibly as far as 500 astronomical units,
19:19and, like an invisible puppeteer, manipulate the orbits of TNOs with its gravity.
19:25Some of these objects get classified as extreme trans-Neptunian objects.
19:29Let's just call them ETNOs for short.
19:32ETNOs are minor planets with an average distance of at least 150 astronomical units from the sun.
19:39They have eccentric orbits, which can't be explained by the gravity of Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, or Jupiter.
19:46This led some scientists to conclude that Planet X must be out there.
19:51Ooh.
19:52As the years went by and more and more TNOs were discovered,
19:56scientists began to notice that those newly found objects didn't follow the previously established patterns.
20:02Many TNOs and ETNOs discovered in the last 5 to 6 years didn't match the same orbital parameters.
20:09Of the 6,000 objects found orbiting beyond 30 AU from the sun,
20:14many showed no signs of being influenced by a hidden planet.
20:19Well, despite that, scientists still hesitate to admit that Planet X is just wishful thinking.
20:24Not only is discovering something new exciting,
20:28but a planet like that could also protect us by pulling in asteroids from deep space.
20:33It could help explain why our solar system looks so different from many others,
20:38where super-Earths and mini-Neptunes are common.
20:41It might even solve how the solar system was formed,
20:44how objects got scattered, and what's still hiding in the dark.
20:48Discovering Planet 9 wouldn't just be cool.
20:51It could reshape everything we know about the solar system.
20:55However, with the discovery of 2017 OF201, actually that's still a mouthful.
21:01Let's call it OFI from now on.
21:03With the discovery of OFI, the whole Planet 9 theory seems to be on its last legs.
21:09So, what makes OFI so special?
21:11And how does it affect the idea behind Planet 9?
21:15The newly discovered member of our solar system is estimated to be about 430 miles in diameter.
21:21This places it in the dwarf planet category,
21:25certainly larger than many other trans-Neptunian objects,
21:28but still about one-third the size of Pluto.
21:31What stands out most is its elongated orbit around the Sun.
21:35It takes at least 25,000 years to complete one revolution.
21:40Its orbit brings it as close as about 45 astronomical units from the Sun,
21:45which is similar to Pluto's distance,
21:47and extends out as far as 1600 AU at its most distant point.
21:52This means it travels far beyond the Kuiper belt
21:55and approaches the inner boundary of the Oort cloud.
21:59This orbit is not just extremely long,
22:01it's also highly eccentric, stretched out like a long oval.
22:05This puts it in a rare group of objects that travel to the most distant parts of our solar system.
22:11While there are objects with longer orbital periods,
22:14like comets that originate from the Oort cloud,
22:17they're much smaller than this newly discovered dwarf planet.
22:20But despite its relatively large size for such a distant object,
22:25Orphe is nearly undetectable.
22:27It spends most of its time hidden from Earth's view,
22:30far from the inner solar system and too faint for current telescopes to spot.
22:35In fact, astronomers estimate it's only visible for about 1% of its 25,000-year orbit.
22:42In fact, this new dwarf planet came closest to the Sun in 1930,
22:47the same year Pluto was discovered.
22:49Yet, it slipped away unnoticed.
22:52Nobody spotted it back then,
22:54and it only got discovered in May 2025 completely by accident.
22:58By digging through archived data from publicly available telescopes,
23:02researchers pieced together its location from 19 separate images taken over 7 years.
23:09That's impressive detective work.
23:11So, what does all of this mean for Planet X?
23:15The archived photos have revealed that this object's orbit
23:18does not match any of the orbital clustering
23:21previously used to support the Planet 9 hypothesis.
23:24It doesn't belong to the same group as other ETNOs.
23:28And more importantly, if a hidden planet is really tugging on celestial bodies,
23:33Orphe should have been flung out of the solar system millions of years ago.
23:37If Planet 9 was where we speculated and had the predicted mass,
23:42then Orphe's current orbit wouldn't last.
23:44It would likely be altered or even destroyed within about 100 million years.
23:49However, its orbit appears stable and undisturbed,
23:53suggesting it has been like this for far longer.
23:56But wait, you exclaim.
23:59If the mysterious orbit of Ophi is not caused by an invisible giant planet,
24:03what else could it be?
24:05Well, space is full of surprises, and gravity isn't exclusive to planets.
24:10One idea is that the orbit has been stretched over time by galactic tides.
24:15Just like the Moon pulls on Earth's oceans,
24:18the Milky Way galaxy itself pulls ever so gently on everything in the solar system.
24:23It's a slow, steady force.
24:26But if you're far out enough, like Ophi is,
24:29even that gentle tug can twist your orbit over millions of years.
24:34Now, another possible explanation could be that a passing star may have come to our solar system a long time
24:41ago,
24:42especially during its formation.
24:43Back when the Sun was young and surrounded by newborn stars,
24:47one could have passed close enough to give some outer objects a gravitational nudge.
24:53That kind of flyby could have easily yanked an icy object into a stretched-out, tilted orbit.
24:59The third idea is that such unusual orbits are leftovers from the early solar system,
25:05when planets and debris were being flung all over the place.
25:08Some may have ended up in stable but extreme orbits, like Ophi, the dwarf planet.
25:14If something really is pulling on these distant objects from outside our solar system,
25:19something like the galaxy itself, then we lack models to explain it.
25:23It's remarkable that we've managed to spot Ophi in the first place.
25:27These objects only appear when close to the Sun, so we've likely seen just a fraction of what's out there.
25:33There could be hundreds or even thousands of similar rocks, all with strange orbits and mysterious origins.
25:40Which means the real mystery might not be a hidden planet,
25:45but the hidden world of space rocks quietly orbiting in the dark, waiting to be found.
25:51Now, if Earth were the size of a nickel, Neptune would be about as big as a baseball.
25:57That's impressive.
25:58But it's nothing compared to the giant ninth planet that might be hiding out there.
26:03Now, our Planet 9's discovery saga might have finally come to an end.
26:07Turns out, the problem wasn't where we were looking, but how.
26:11And researchers might have just made the biggest solar system discovery in decades.
26:16You see, the idea of finding a planet beyond Neptune has been around for years now.
26:22I know, back in school, you probably learned that the ninth planet was Pluto.
26:26But forget about Pluto, it's been demoted to a less fancy category since 2006.
26:31What I'm talking about is the Planet 9.
26:35A hypothetical giant planet that could be our cosmic neighbor.
26:39We've never actually seen it, but scientists are pretty sure it's out there somewhere,
26:44hiding in the outer solar system.
26:47To explain why they think that, we need a sheet of paper.
26:50Hey, here's one.
26:51We place a coin on it, and suddenly, it starts to move.
26:55Unless we're talking about some kind of superpower, there's no way this coin is moving on its own, right?
27:01So, you figure someone must be on the other side, holding a magnet and moving it around.
27:07You can't see the magnet, but it explains why the coin is moving.
27:11That's kind of what's happening with Planet 9.
27:14We can't see it, we can't prove it, yet.
27:17But its existence could explain the strange movements we see out there in space.
27:22For example, the planets in our solar system orbit on a flat plane that's tilted about 6 degrees relative to
27:29the Sun.
27:30But why 6 degrees?
27:32Well, no one really knows for sure.
27:34Some scientists think those orbits might be slightly tilted because of the pull of a ninth planet.
27:40Its existence could also explain the unusual paths of smaller objects in the distant Kuiper Belt,
27:46a region full of icy debris that stretches far beyond Neptune's orbit.
27:51Back in 2016, researchers from Caltech published a study about Planet 9.
27:57They suggested it could have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and follow a highly elongated path.
28:04That's a scientific way of saying it takes forever to make one trip around the Sun.
28:09Because of that, it would be located in the outer solar system.
28:12I mean, far, far away.
28:14It would orbit the Sun about 20 to 30 times farther out than our most distant planet, Neptune.
28:21According to scientists, Planet 9 would take up to 20,000 Earth years to complete just one full orbit around
28:27the Sun.
28:28Since it's crazy far out there, it's almost impossible to see it.
28:32So, as cool as this hypothesis sounds, we've never found solid evidence that Planet 9 actually exists.
28:40But we might be pretty close.
28:42In May 2025, a team at National Tsinghua University might have made one of the most exciting solar system discoveries
28:50ever.
28:51Alright, so there's a hypothesis that Planet 9 hasn't been discovered yet because we haven't been using the right method.
28:58This new study raises an interesting question.
29:02What if Planet 9 actually looks brighter in infrared light than it does in visible light?
29:07Let me explain.
29:09Scientists have been trying to spot Planet 9 by its reflected light.
29:13But here's the problem.
29:14To spot it in visible wavelengths, sunlight would have to travel all the way out to Planet 9, bounce off
29:21its surface, and then travel all the way back to Earth.
29:23If a Neptune-sized planet were about 10 times farther away than Neptune, it would look about 10,000 times
29:30fainter.
29:31But a planet's own thermal radiation – I mean, its heat – only has to make a one-way trip.
29:37So in infrared light, Planet 9 would only be about 100 times fainter.
29:42That's why it makes more sense to look for it using space-based infrared telescopes.
29:47And that's the idea behind this new study.
29:49The team started digging through archives, searching for old infrared sky survey data.
29:55And they pulled it from two main sources.
29:57First, IRIS, a satellite launched in the 80s that scanned the sky for almost a year.
30:03Then, the Japanese satellite Akari, another infrared observatory that operated between 2006 and 2011.
30:11So basically, they compared objects that showed up in IRIS database and noticed which ones had moved by the time
30:18Akari took its observations.
30:20And by doing that, the researchers found something incredible.
30:24An object that might just be our long-lost ninth planet.
30:29Because if something moves, it could be a planet orbiting the Sun, right?
30:32And yeah, they did find some celestial objects showing tiny movements.
30:37But before jumping to conclusions, they had to rule out the parallax effect.
30:42And that's something really important when we're talking about solar system discoveries.
30:46To explain it, I need you to do something.
30:49Hold one finger in front of your face, close one eye, and now switch.
30:54Your finger seems to move a tiny bit, right?
30:57That's because you're looking at it from a slightly different angle, from one eyeball to the other.
31:02The same thing happens when we look out into space from Earth.
31:06Since our planet orbits the Sun, our view of very distant objects shifts just a little.
31:12That effect is called parallax.
31:14My point is, because of this effect, Planet 9 would appear to move across the sky as Earth goes around
31:20the Sun.
31:21On any given day, it might seem to be in one spot.
31:25But six months later, when Earth is on the opposite side of the Sun, it would look like it shifted.
31:30Six months after that, it would seem to move back again.
31:34Scientists had to account for parallax.
31:37Actually, they had to remove its effects.
31:39So the team looked at images of the sky taken on the same date every year.
31:44Because on that same date, Earth is always in the same spot in its orbit.
31:48That means if Planet 9 is real, it would show up in the same place in those images every year.
31:54No fake wiggle from parallax, just its real position.
31:59This careful search led them to a single object, a tiny dot in the infrared data.
32:05This strange little spot had moved slightly along its orbit around the Sun over the 23 years between iris and
32:12a carry.
32:12Wait, could that be it?
32:15Did astronomers just confirm a hidden planet?
32:17Well, maybe.
32:19But don't get too excited.
32:21The data we have on its motion over that time is not enough to figure out its full orbit.
32:27So for now, we still can't say for sure if this mysterious object is really Planet 9.
32:33It's definitely a strong candidate, though.
32:36Based on how bright the object appears, the team estimates it could be pretty massive.
32:41And that came as a big surprise.
32:44You see, previous NASA research ruled out any Jupiter-sized or Saturn-sized planets hiding out there.
32:50But a smaller world would have gone undetected.
32:53So the scientists were looking for something just a bit bigger than Earth.
32:57But it turns out, this mysterious planet might be more massive than Neptune.
33:02Now that they've discovered Planet 9, supposedly at least, the plan is to keep tracking it and collecting new data.
33:09But don't think the road ahead will be easy.
33:12Because since the Acari satellite spotted it for the first time, that object didn't just sit still.
33:18It's been moving slowly through space ever since.
33:21So now, scientists need to use regular telescopes on Earth to look for it again.
33:25And here's the tricky part.
33:27They're not exactly sure where it moved to.
33:30So they have to search a pretty big patch of the sky.
33:33And so far, no matching object has been found.
33:36Whether this really turns out to be the Planet 9 discovery or not, only time will tell.
33:42For now, its existence is still up for debate.
33:45But with powerful new technology on the way, like NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope,
33:51astronomers are more determined than ever to uncover the truth.
33:55And if Planet 9 really is out there, hiding in the cold, dark edges of our solar system,
34:01it's running out of places to hide.
34:04The Planet 9 is the case of theλ Q&A in the cold.
34:04And we'll be divided into some questions in a bit,
34:04And we'll be able to find a way to find a way to find a way to find a way
34:05to find a way to find a way to find a way to find a way to find a way
34:05to find a way to find this way.