- 2 months ago
What if a 5,000-year-old Sumerian tablet contained a warning about a mysterious celestial body whose return would bring worldwide catastrophe? For decades, some researchers and ancient-astronaut theorists have linked these ancient texts to the controversial idea of Nibiru, while mainstream historians and astronomers dispute that interpretation. In this video, we'll examine what the Sumerian tablets actually say, explore the origins of the Nibiru theory, and separate historical evidence from modern speculation.
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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, there'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.
01:31For example, the planets in our solar system orbit on a flat plane that's tilted about 6 degrees relative to
01:38the 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, a region full of
01:56icy debris that stretches far beyond Neptune's orbit.
02:00Back in 2016, researchers from Caltech published a study about Planet 9.
02:05They suggested it could have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and follow a highly elongated path.
02:13That'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.
02:29According 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.
03:00Alright, 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.
03:23To spot it in visible wavelengths, sunlight would have to travel all the way out to Planet 9,
03:29bounce off its 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.
03:45So 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 Akari, another infrared observatory that operated between 2006 and 2011.
04:20So basically, they compared objects that showed up in IRIS database and noticed which ones had moved by the time
04:27Akari 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.
04:54To 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.
05:09From 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.
05:22My point is, because of this effect, planet 9 would appear to move across the sky as Earth
05:28goes around the Sun.
05:30On 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
05:38it 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.
05:53Because 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.
06:06Just its real position.
06:07This careful search led them to a single object.
06:11A tiny dot in the infrared data.
06:13This strange little spot had moved slightly along its orbit around the Sun over the 23 years
06:19between Iris and Ikari.
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.
06:45Based on how bright the object appears, the team estimates it could be pretty massive.
06:50And that came as a big surprise.
06:53You 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.
07:11Now that they've discovered planet 9, supposedly, at least,
07:14the 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 Ikari satellite spotted it for the first time,
07:24that 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.
08:13Look at this giant donut-shaped region far away from Earth, beyond the orbit of Neptune.
08:19We're talking about a distance of more than 2.5 billion miles.
08:23It's the Kuiper Belt.
08:25And something eerie and bizarre is happening there.
08:29Dwarf planets and other small objects dwelling there refuse to cluster together.
08:34Instead, they follow particular orbits, which is weird.
08:39The reason might be a large, mysterious planet hiding beyond Pluto.
08:44Its gravity might be messing up the orbits of those Kuiper space bodies.
08:51Hear me out.
08:52Our solar system is made up of the sun and everything that goes around it because of the star's strong
08:58gravity.
08:59This includes the eight main planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
09:07There are also smaller things like moons, asteroids, and Pluto.
09:12For a long time, people thought Pluto was the ninth planet.
09:16But when it was reclassified as a dwarf planet, scientists started looking for a new planet X.
09:22Did they have a thing about odd numbers or what?
09:25And guess what?
09:27Some really think there might be a big, icy planet hiding far, far away beyond Neptune.
09:33This mystery planet is often called Planet 9.
09:38Now, Planet 9 hasn't been seen yet.
09:41But scientists think it might be out there because of some tiny, far away space rocks called etnos that move
09:48following bizarre, confusing paths.
09:51These paths seem to be grouped together and tilted in a way that doesn't happen by chance.
09:56This could mean there's a hidden planet pulling them into place with its gravity.
10:01If Planet 9 is real, it might be 5 to 10 times heavier than Earth.
10:06It would also be super far away, hundreds of times farther from the Sun than Earth is.
10:12Over the years, scientists have guessed different distances for its orbit.
10:16And the newest guess in 2025 says it could be about 290 times farther from the Sun than Earth.
10:25There are some cool ideas about where Planet 9 came from.
10:29It might have started as a big planet that Jupiter once kicked out of the inner solar system.
10:34Or it might have come from another star or even wandered around space on its own before getting caught by
10:40the Sun's gravity.
10:41Even though scientists have looked really hard using powerful telescopes, no one has actually seen Planet 9 yet.
10:49And so far, its existence is still just a theory.
10:54But recently, a group of researchers tried something clever.
10:58They used data from two special space surveys called ERAS and ACARI.
11:03These two looked at the sky in invisible light, far infrared, about 23 years apart.
11:10Which is helpful because Planet 9 is supposed to move very slowly.
11:16The team focused on a special list from ACARI, which is better at finding faint, moving things in space.
11:23They guessed how bright Planet 9 might be and how fast it might move based on how big, far away,
11:30and cold it could be.
11:32Then they looked for matching blips in the sky that were seen by both ERAS and ACARI, but not in
11:39the exact same spot.
11:41That's because a real planet would have moved a little over 23 years, and they indeed found 13 possible matches
11:48that could be Planet 9.
11:50Their estimations were based on how far away the object seemed to be, 500 to 700 times farther from the
11:57Sun than Earth,
11:58and how heavy it might be, which is 7 to 17 times Earth's mass.
12:05After looking very carefully at all the images, they narrowed it down to one really good candidate.
12:11The two detections weren't in the same spot in both surveys,
12:14and the way they appeared in the ACARI map matched what you'd expect from a slow-moving object.
12:20It showed up on one date and wasn't there six months earlier, but of course, there was a catch.
12:27Apparently, the old data isn't good enough to figure out the exact path of the potential planet.
12:33So, the team wants to do new follow-up observations using a special camera called DCAM,
12:39which is really good at spotting faint, moving objects.
12:43That way, they can find out if this candidate is really Planet 9.
12:48Additionally, it can help us learn more about how our solar system works and how it formed.
12:55If Planet 9 is ever discovered, it would totally change the way we understand our solar system.
13:00It could explain why some far-out space rocks in the Kuiper Belt tilt weirdly.
13:05The thing is, most planets go around the Sun in a flat-ish circle.
13:10But those far-away objects are tilted about 20 degrees.
13:15Planet 9 might be the reason why.
13:17Next, we'd probably find out why those tilted objects seem to point the same way.
13:23Their orbits are grouped together in one direction.
13:26A big, hidden planet's gravity could be hurting them like sheep.
13:31There are also some strange tilted objects super far away.
13:35They don't make sense unless something big, like Planet 9, is tugging on them.
13:40A few space rocks orbit the Sun backward between the big planets, which is kinda the wrong way.
13:46That's super weird unless something big is messing with them.
13:50Some far-out Kuiper Belt objects keep crossing Neptune's path and haven't been flung away.
13:57That's because Planet 9 might be helping keep their orbits stable over a long time.
14:04Another cool thing is that if Planet 9 existed, it would be a super-Earth,
14:09a kind of planet we see a lot around other stars, but we don't have in our solar system yet.
14:15So finding one here would make our solar system more like the others out there.
14:21Throughout history, people have been wondering if there could be hidden planets far beyond Neptune,
14:27even before Pluto was found.
14:32Back in 1880, a guy named George Forbes guessed there might be two unknown planets way out there,
14:39one about 100 times farther from the Sun than Earth,
14:43and the other about 300 times farther.
14:45He thought these mystery planets might be pulling on some comets and changing their orbits,
14:51kind of like how Jupiter does with the comets near it.
14:56In 2004, scientists found a weird little world called Sedna.
15:00It had a strange path around the Sun that didn't seem to be affected by any of the known planets.
15:06Its closest point to the Sun, called perihelion, is way too far for Neptune to be the reason.
15:12This made some scientists wonder if Sedna got pushed into its path by a hidden planet,
15:19maybe even something as big as Earth or bigger.
15:22Others thought maybe it was a star that flew by a long time ago,
15:27or another star that formed near ours.
15:30Then, in 2014, another odd object was discovered.
15:34It had a very similar orbit to Sedna, which made people even more suspicious
15:39that there could be something big out there messing with their paths.
15:44This kicked off a new round of the Planet X or Planet 9 hunt.
15:49At a meeting in 2012, a scientist named Rodney Gomez said that maybe there was a big,
15:55hidden planet around 1,500 times farther from the Sun than Earth.
16:00He thought it could explain the orbits of other odd objects,
16:04like some far-out comets and centaurs, small bodies that wander among the giant planets.
16:10At that time, those who supported the Planet 9 theory believed that if it existed,
16:15it would move around the Sun in a huge, stretched-out circle called an elliptical orbit.
16:20It would be about 400 to 800 times farther from the Sun than Earth is,
16:26about 13 to 26 times farther than Neptune.
16:30If it really had that kind of orbit,
16:33it would take around 10,000 to 20,000 years to go around the Sun just once.
16:38Plus, if it indeed orbited the Sun,
16:41it wouldn't follow the same flat path as the other planets.
16:44Its path would be tilted by about 15 degrees to 25 degrees.
16:49The farthest point in its orbit, called Aphelion,
16:52would be in the direction of the Taurus constellation.
16:55As for the closest point, it would point towards Serpens, Ophiuchus, or Libra.
17:01As for the composition of Planet 9, it would probably be a lot like Uranus or Neptune.
17:06It would have a thick atmosphere made of hydrogen and helium,
17:10and it would be super cold, negative 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
17:15Its core would be made of iron,
17:17and its middle layer would be full of rock and water ice.
17:21At the same time, if the planet was smaller and denser,
17:24then it might be more like Earth,
17:26with a rocky surface instead of a gassy one.
17:29According to a scientist named Mike Brown,
17:32if Planet 9 was real,
17:34a space probe would reach it in about 20 years
17:37if we used a powerful slingshot path around the Sun.
17:49Scientists may have just found evidence of a hidden planet
17:52in our own solar system.
17:55Not beyond distant stars.
17:57Not in another galaxy.
18:00Right here, orbiting the Sun.
18:03For years, astronomers have been noticing something strange
18:07happening far beyond Neptune.
18:10Objects in the outer solar system were moving in ways
18:13that didn't quite make sense.
18:15Their orbits were stretched, tilted, and oddly aligned,
18:19as if something massive was pulling on them.
18:23Now, new studies suggest
18:25there may be a large unseen planet hiding in the darkness.
18:29A world so distant and faint
18:32that telescopes have struggled to detect it directly.
18:35Some scientists call it Planet 9.
18:39Others still refer to it as Planet X.
18:42And if it exists,
18:44it could be one of the biggest discoveries in modern astronomy.
18:48To understand where this idea comes from,
18:51we need to look at the outer edge of the solar system.
18:54Beyond Neptune lies a vast region
18:57filled with icy objects,
18:59known as the Kuiper Belt.
19:01This area contains dwarf planets like Pluto,
19:05along with thousands of smaller bodies
19:07left over from the early formation of the solar system.
19:10Most of these objects follow predictable orbits around the Sun.
19:15But over time, astronomers began to notice
19:18that some of them behaved very differently.
19:21Several distant objects had highly elongated orbits
19:24that all pointed in roughly the same direction.
19:27Instead of being randomly distributed,
19:30their paths appeared clustered,
19:32almost as if something was guiding them.
19:35That was the first clue.
19:36In 2016, astronomers analyzing these unusual orbits
19:42proposed a possible explanation.
19:44They suggested that a large, unseen planet
19:48might be influencing these objects through gravity.
19:52According to their models,
19:53this hidden world could be about 5 to 10 times more massive than Earth.
19:58It might orbit the Sun
20:00at a distance of hundreds of astronomical units,
20:03meaning hundreds of times farther from the Sun than Earth.
20:07At that distance,
20:09one full orbit could take anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 years.
20:15That would make it incredibly difficult to detect.
20:18Even large telescopes struggle to see objects that faint and distant.
20:23The planet would reflect very little sunlight,
20:25and it would move extremely slowly across the sky.
20:29But here's where things get more interesting.
20:33As more distant objects have been discovered,
20:36the pattern has continued.
20:38Additional trans-Neptunian objects
20:41show similar orbital clustering,
20:43strengthening the idea that something massive
20:46could be shaping their motion.
20:48Computer simulations have shown
20:50that a planet with the predicted mass and orbit
20:53could produce exactly this kind of effect.
20:56In other words,
20:57even though astronomers haven't directly seen Planet X,
21:01they may already be seeing its influence.
21:04There is another reason why this planet
21:06could have remained hidden for so long.
21:09Some models suggest that its orbit might be highly tilted
21:12compared to the rest of the solar system.
21:15Instead of orbiting neatly along the same flat plane as the planets,
21:19it could move at a steep angle,
21:22spending most of its time far above or below
21:25where astronomers typically search.
21:27It may also currently be located in a region of the sky
21:31that is difficult to observe,
21:33possibly hidden behind dense star fields
21:35or simply too faint to stand out.
21:38Because of this,
21:40scientists have been conducting targeted searches
21:42using powerful telescopes,
21:45scanning large sections of the sky over many years.
21:48So far,
21:50no direct image of Planet X has been confirmed,
21:53but the evidence continues to build.
21:56There are also alternative explanations.
21:59Some researchers argue
22:01that the strange orbits of distant objects
22:03could be caused by observational bias.
22:06Because astronomers tend to search
22:08certain regions of the sky more than others,
22:10the data might appear clustered,
22:13even if it is not.
22:14Others suggest that the combined gravitational influence
22:18of many smaller objects
22:19could create similar patterns.
22:21There is even a hypothesis
22:23that a past stellar encounter
22:25when another star passed near our solar system
22:28millions of years ago
22:30could have disturbed these orbits.
22:32But none of these explanations
22:34fully account for all the observed data.
22:37That is why the Planet X hypothesis
22:39remains one of the leading ideas.
22:41And the search is accelerating.
22:44New telescopes,
22:46including next-generation survey instruments,
22:49are expected to scan the sky
22:50with greater sensitivity than ever before.
22:54These surveys may finally be able
22:56to detect faint objects
22:57moving slowly in the distant solar system.
23:00If Planet X is real,
23:03astronomers believe it could be found
23:05within the next decade.
23:06And if it is discovered,
23:08it would reshape our understanding
23:10of how the solar system formed.
23:13Some theories suggest
23:14that this planet may have formed
23:16closer to the sun
23:17and was later pushed outward
23:19by gravitational interactions
23:21with Jupiter and Saturn
23:22early in the solar system's history.
23:25Other ideas propose
23:27that it could even be a captured object
23:29from another star system.
23:31Either way,
23:32it would represent
23:33a completely new class of planet
23:35in our solar system.
23:37Right now,
23:39the outer solar system remains
23:41one of the least explored regions around us.
23:44We have mapped the surfaces of Mars
23:46and sent probes beyond Pluto.
23:48But vast areas of space around the sun
23:51are still largely unknown.
23:54And somewhere out there,
23:56far beyond Neptune,
23:57a massive world could be moving slowly
24:00through the darkness,
24:01hidden from view.
24:02If scientists are right,
24:05Planet X has been there
24:06the entire time.
24:08We just didn't know where to look.
24:11So, we might be getting closer
24:13to finding a massive icy planet
24:15beyond Neptune's orbit.
24:17Sorry, Pluto.
24:18Still not you.
24:19Recently,
24:20some universe mapping
24:21using data from a telescope in Hawaii
24:23eliminated about 78%
24:26of the possible locations
24:27for this mysterious Waldo from space.
24:30Some people call it Planet 9,
24:33while others prefer Planet X.
24:35Either way,
24:36it's been causing controversy
24:37since its existence was first proposed.
24:40And that is mainly
24:41because no study so far
24:43can answer the big question,
24:45does it really exist?
24:47If discovered,
24:48Planet 9 would rank
24:49as the fifth largest planet
24:51in our solar system,
24:52with a mass 10 times that of Earth.
24:55It's also theorized to be gaseous,
24:57like Uranus.
24:58The initial study on Planet 9,
25:01dating back to 2016,
25:03suggests that this colossal new planet
25:05orbits the Sun
25:0629 times farther out than Neptune,
25:09which sits at about 2.8 billion miles.
25:12As a result,
25:14the Planet 9
25:15would take between 10,000 and 20,000 years
25:18to complete a single orbit around the Sun.
25:20If confirmed,
25:22this yet-to-be-understood world
25:23would dominate a region
25:25larger than any other known planet
25:27in our cosmic neighborhood.
25:29These are all intriguing hypotheses,
25:32but without a single piece of evidence
25:34or observation to back them up.
25:36Before dismissing this as a wild guess,
25:39it is important to note
25:41that these researchers
25:42relied on complex mathematical modeling
25:45and computer simulations
25:46to speculate about the planet's characteristics,
25:49because that's what they do.
25:51The hypothetical presence of this planet
25:53would explain various mysterious features
25:56located beyond Neptune.
25:57We are specifically talking about the Kuiper Belt,
26:01a huge donut-shaped region
26:03filled with icy debris
26:05left over from the formation of the solar system,
26:07including comets and dwarf planets,
26:10like Pluto.
26:11What happens is that
26:12the six farthest objects in the Kuiper Belt
26:15exhibit elliptical orbits
26:17that are all oriented
26:18in a similar direction
26:19within physical space
26:21and tilted approximately 30 degrees downward
26:23relative to the orbital plane
26:25of our eight known planets.
26:27What's strange here
26:28is that despite their distinct orbital velocities
26:31around the solar system,
26:33they maintain this alignment.
26:35The likelihood of such alignment
26:36occurring randomly is extremely low,
26:39around 0.007%.
26:42So, here comes Planet Nine,
26:44a hypothetical massive celestial body
26:47that offers a plausible explanation
26:49for this strange phenomenon,
26:52potentially exerting gravitational influence
26:54to shape these orbits.
26:57The initial theory didn't hold up for long,
27:00facing accusations of observational bias
27:03and calculation errors.
27:04Then, in 2017,
27:07another study popped up,
27:08sparking back the idea
27:10that maybe Planet Nine
27:11is out there after all.
27:13This time,
27:14Spanish astronomers
27:15tried a novel approach,
27:17focusing on observing
27:18extreme trans-Neptunian objects.
27:21These celestial bodies
27:22orbit the Sun
27:23in highly stretched elliptical paths,
27:26with average distances
27:27exceeding 13 billion miles.
27:30The research suggests
27:31that the distances
27:32between these objects' nodes
27:33and the Sun
27:34might provide clues
27:35to Planet Nine's location.
27:37You see,
27:38these nodes are the points
27:40where a celestial body's orbit
27:42intersects the solar system's plane.
27:44When these objects
27:45reach these points,
27:46they're more likely
27:47to interact
27:48with other solar system bodies,
27:50potentially causing
27:51significant changes
27:52in their orbits
27:53or even collisions.
27:55So,
27:55if the trajectory
27:56of these extreme
27:57trans-Neptunian objects
27:59remains stable,
28:00everything's fine.
28:01But if it's not,
28:03well,
28:03that's a sign
28:04that something else,
28:06something big,
28:06is messing with their path.
28:08And that's exactly
28:09what the research found.
28:11There is something unseen
28:13out there,
28:14throwing these objects
28:15off course.
28:16And that something
28:17could be a planet
28:18chilling at a distance
28:19between 300 to 400 times
28:22farther from the Sun
28:23than Earth.
28:24To this day,
28:25the study of the extreme
28:26trans-Neptunian objects
28:28is the strongest evidence
28:29we've got
28:30for Planet Nine's existence.
28:31And if you're still
28:33not convinced
28:34by this theory,
28:35know that strange motions
28:36like these
28:37have led to planetary
28:38discoveries before.
28:40Neptune,
28:41for instance,
28:41was spotted
28:42because Uranus' motion
28:44didn't quite agree
28:45with the predictions
28:46of Newtonian gravity.
28:47But the deflection
28:48of its orbit
28:49could be explained
28:50if it was caused
28:51by a pull
28:52of an undiscovered planet.
28:54And just like that,
28:55we discovered Neptune.
28:59Now, the year is 2021,
29:01and there's all this buzz
29:02about Planet Nine again.
29:04After correcting
29:05some old guesses,
29:06studies are now leaning
29:08towards the idea
29:09that this mystery world
29:10follows an epic loop
29:12around the Sun
29:12every 7,000 years.
29:15That is massive news,
29:16because it means
29:17this planet might be closer
29:19than we ever thought,
29:20making it easier
29:21for our telescopes
29:22to spot it.
29:23The paper also suggests
29:25there is a whopping
29:2699% chance
29:27that the funky orbits
29:29of these distant objects
29:30are all because
29:31of this unseen planet,
29:33not just some
29:34cosmic coincidence.
29:35Now, the odds
29:36of this whole situation
29:37being a fluke
29:38are down to a 1 in 250 chance,
29:41which is much better
29:43than the 1 in 10,000 chance
29:45back in 2016.
29:48All these optimistic numbers
29:49have brought us
29:50to where we are today,
29:51keeping our hopes
29:53and working on better equipment
29:54to continue the mission
29:55of spotting Planet 9.
29:57As mentioned earlier,
29:59researchers in Hawaii
30:00created some kind
30:01of treasure map,
30:02utilizing the Panoramic Survey
30:04Telescope
30:05and Rapid Response System
30:07to eliminate 78%
30:09of its locations.
30:10This is great news,
30:11considering how challenging
30:13it is to find
30:14a planet-sized needle
30:15in a cosmic haystack.
30:16But, unfortunately,
30:19Planet 9's presence
30:20remains a ghost
30:21in the dark outer reaches
30:23of our solar system.
30:25Enthusiasts are still convinced
30:26of its existence
30:27and believe it is only
30:28a matter of time
30:29before we celebrate
30:31the discovery
30:31of Earth's new cosmic cousin.
30:33They're putting their hopes
30:35on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory,
30:37which is currently
30:38under construction in Chile
30:39and is scheduled
30:40to begin science operations
30:42in late 2025.
30:43Over the course of 10 years,
30:46this observatory
30:47will scan the entire
30:48southern hemisphere sky
30:49every few nights
30:51with a 27-foot,
30:53fast-moving telescope
30:54equipped with the largest
30:55digital camera
30:56in the world.
30:57The idea is to catalog
30:59everything in the solar system,
31:01reaching out to
31:02and beyond Neptune
31:03and tracking the movements
31:04of millions
31:05of celestial objects,
31:06including space junk,
31:08asteroids,
31:09comets,
31:09and stars.
31:11If Planet 9
31:12is indeed out there,
31:13this next-generation telescope
31:15could be the one
31:16to find it.
31:18The existence
31:19of this mysterious planet
31:21is far from being
31:22universally accepted
31:23in the scientific community.
31:25That is simply because
31:26Planet 9
31:27isn't the only explanation
31:29for the strange phenomenon
31:30occurring beyond Neptune.
31:32One theory suggests
31:33that a group
31:34of distant objects,
31:35such as dwarf planets,
31:37comets,
31:38and moons,
31:38might be collectively
31:40influencing the orbits
31:41of the extreme
31:42trans-Neptunian objects.
31:44Others believe
31:45that a black hole
31:46is behind all this.
31:47These compressed masses
31:49are some of the densest
31:50objects in the universe,
31:51potentially capable
31:52of affecting the orbits
31:53of other masses,
31:54like how this supposed
31:56ghost Planet 9
31:57is believed to be doing.
32:00Another bold perspective
32:02suggests that our
32:03current understanding
32:04of the laws of gravity
32:05is flawed,
32:06actually incomplete.
32:08This theory,
32:09known as
32:10Modified Newtonian Dynamics,
32:12proposes that
32:13these distant icy objects
32:14exhibit strange behavior
32:16not due to influence
32:18from another planet,
32:19but rather because
32:20the immense gravitational field
32:22of the Milky Way
32:23is influencing them.
32:24However,
32:25even supporters
32:26of this theory
32:27acknowledge that
32:28it is too early
32:29to draw firm conclusions,
32:31and much more extensive
32:32research is still required.
32:35While we continue
32:37our relentless hunt
32:38for Planet 9,
32:39some astronomers
32:40have taken it
32:41a step further,
32:42suggesting the existence
32:43of a hypothetical
32:45Planet 10.
32:46This world has a mass
32:47and size
32:48like that of Mars
32:49or Earth
32:50and is located
32:51on the edges
32:51of the Kuiper belt.
32:53But the thing is,
32:54if this alleged
32:55Planet 10
32:56is indeed as small
32:57as scientists believe,
32:59it might not have
33:00enough gravity
33:00to clear its orbit
33:01of debris.
33:02And that is pretty similar
33:04to what happens
33:04with Pluto,
33:05being one of the reasons
33:07why it got into trouble
33:08back in 2006.
33:10So yeah,
33:11it's better not
33:12to get too excited.
33:13This supposed Planet 10
33:15might end up classified
33:16as another dwarf planet.