Now That Planet Nine Is A Thing, Let's Wonder What's Over There

Far beyond Pluto, Caltech researchers have found evidence of a giant new planet, temporarily named “Planet Nine” by the scientific community.

It’s a name that possibly resolves the endless argument as to whether or not the former ninth planet, Pluto, is actually a planet at all. (It was reclassified a dwarf planet in 2006, but some superfans are having trouble letting go.)

The researchers found this evidence by analysing orbits clustered together, after they discovered dwarf planets and other small objects were being drawn to the clusters. The hypothetical planet is estimated to be similar in size to Neptune, with a mass 10x that of the Earth, and is calculated to be a gaseous planet. It could take more than 10,000 years to orbit the sun. That’s one long year.

Sadly, it seems as though the new planet would be uninhabitable. It’s too far away and technology has not come close to being advanced for this kind of space mission. Plus, it still remains only a theory. However, this will not stop people imagining what it could be like.

It could be a planet like our own; one that supports life, making it a clean slate compared with the damages done to Earth. We could use it to grow food; repopulate endangered species; actually live there. Doing this, we could use Earth as an industrial planet. It could be our second chance at reducing our carbon footprint.

On the other hand, it could be a gaseous planet that would kill us all immediately upon arrival, so we might only be able to view it from an outsider’s perspective.

As awesome as it would be to live on Planet Nine, it would be even better to not instantly die. In the meantime, we can enjoy the safety of Earth; conjuring theories and ‘what ifs’ over this discovery.

One possible fear is that due to the dwarf planets being drawn to the cluster of orbits, it could possibly pull along all other planets, destroying them. Thankfully, it’s not even close to Earth.

Actual conspiracy theorists believe that the discovery is a sign of the apocalypse. They believe that one day it will pass Earth and the gravitational pull will trigger natural disasters. It’s theorised that Planet Nine is coming closer each year, explaining earthquakes, climate change, floods and season-swapping (winter becoming hot, summer becoming cold). This theory was created before the discovery of Planet Nine – formerly attributed to Planet X or Nibiru - and continues to be believed by many, despite the fact that in 2009, Neil deGrasse Tyson completely shut it down.

What if, despite all of these theories from Caltech researchers, Planet Nine isn’t a planet after all? What if it’s something else? It could be an alien mothership; the other side of the Bermuda triangle; the meaning of life; another sun; the opening to a new solar system; even the opening of a parallel universe.

All jokes aside, one of the most beautifully terrifying things about the universe is that we know next to nothing about it. There are things that could be out there that have never even crossed our minds. There could be things that we may not be able to conceive of, or even see.

On Earth, humans only have three photoreceptors – which gives us our vision - but there is a creature called the mantis shrimp, living in our ocean, that has 12 to 16 photoreceptors! Imagine the things we can’t see on Earth… now imagine what we can’t see in space. It’s almost impossible.

Space is just astounding, it’s a near miracle that we have discovered what we already have. Our capabilities are incredible; so incredible that we are close to discovering yet another new planet.

Astronomers will be using existing telescopes in order to search for the planet. Despite being far away and faint behind the sun, they believe that we should be able to see it, without having to create new telescopes.

Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, says that "anytime we have an interesting idea like this, we always apply Carl Sagan's rules for critical thinking, which include independent confirmation of the facts, looking for alternate explanations, and encouraging scientific debate. If Planet X is out there, we'll find it together. Or we'll determine an alternate explanation for the data that we've received so far. Now let's go explore."

What do you think is out there? Does Planet Nine exist, or is there another explanation?

Bianca Welsh-Jayne is one of Student Edge’s student contributors. Learn more about the contributors program.