A mysterious, unseen ‘Planet 10’ may be lurking in the outer reaches of our solar system, say scientists, including one of Indian origin, who have found evidence of a Mars-like object that could be orbiting our Sun.
This object would be different from, and much closer than, the Planet Nine — whose existence yet awaits confirmation. Researchers, including Renu Malhotra of the University of Arizona in the U.S., found compelling evidence of a yet-to-be-discovered planetary body with a mass somewhere between that of Mars and Earth.
Space rocks
The mysterious mass has given away its presence only by controlling the orbital planes of a population of space rocks known as Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) in the icy outskirts of the solar system.
While most KBOs — debris left over from the formation of the solar system — orbit the Sun with orbital tilts that average out to the invariable plane of the solar system, the most distant of the Kuiper Belt’s objects do not.
Their average plane is tilted away from the invariable plane by about eight degrees, researchers said.
This means something unknown is warping the average orbital plane of the outer solar system.
The study published in the Astronomical Journal .
