NASA insists Planet Nine exists

Another world on the edge of our Solar System really is likely, and astronomers are determined to discover it

Evidence of Planet Nine is now so strong NASA believes the celestial body really could be lurking at the edge of our Solar System. The space agency said the signs so far are indirect and equate mainly to its gravitational footprints, but that it “adds up to a compelling case nonetheless”.

Konstantin Batygin, a planetary astrophysicist at Caltech in Pasadena, California, says “there are now five different lines of observational evidence pointing to [its] existence.” He says six known objects in the Kuiper Belt not only have elliptical orbits pointing in the same direction, but are titled about 30 degrees downward. He also says computer simulations involving a Solar System with Planet Nine should have more objects tilted as much as 90 degrees – and that investigations show this has happened with five such objects.

More recently, Planet Nine has been shown to explain why the eight major planets orbiting the Sun are titled six degrees compared to the Sun's equator.