^^

--IronDuke

Phil Plait (the "Bad Astronomy" guy) was being really skeptical about this Planet Nine.

I think a reasonable skepticism is healthy. Humans are finite and fallible, and a little humility goes well with science.

So I was actually pretty pleased that the Caltech story pointed out that the team considered several hypotheses, but concluded that they had to discard them because they didn't fit the observable facts. "Distant super-Earth sized planet" was just the last theory they tried, and the one that satisfied the most known facts so far.

So I'm willing to post the story, but I agree that this should be considered tentative... until/unless somebody actually locates Planet Nine.

(And Poseidonis was the first name I thought of. Seems reasonable for a planet in the deep, dark, depths of space.)

Also, Cha0zz, nice catch -- thanks! Link updated.

Yeah, PlanetX has been hunted after since Pluto failed to explain the perturbations out the deep end of the sol system.
Will be absolutely hilarious if the idiots who thought of this like fifty years ago are proven right.

I hope it does get discovered. Because it would be the first planet that we have NO chance of reasonably getting to with our current propulsion technology. Manned or probe.

It will demonstrate just how massive the solar system actually is and encourage us to invest research into developing new forms of propulsion. Perhaps Antimatter

AbhChallenger wrote:Perhaps Antimatter

Except that there is no known way to produce significant amounts of antimatter at any kind of efficiency :V

If you want to wait a decade to put a 3kg probe in orbit, have fun :V

Well, we'll invent a way. That's what discovery is all about!

Cornflakes_91 wrote:

AbhChallenger wrote:Perhaps Antimatter

Except that there is no known way to produce significant amounts of antimatter at any kind of efficiency :V

If you want to wait a decade to put a 3kg probe in orbit, have fun :V

That is why we would have to have the goal. And more important the funding of such a goal. In order to develop the technology to do that.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Bowie