8 thoughts on “Planet Nine”

  1. It’s discovery doesn’t (or is that “won’t?) increase the number of cometary impacts above that which occurred before it’s existence was known, and we’ll be shunting comets around the solar system in a century or two anyway?

  2. Anyone have any idea what, EXACTLY, their modeling showed? If it’s simply that a likely cause for the orbital paths of the objects shown is the existence of planet 9, that’s little more than guesswork due to the likely small sample of such objects we have, plus other possible explanations (for example, a near-pass (less than half a light year) by a star millions of years ago). I note that the article implies that planet 9 has to exist to maintain the orbits, but I can’t see how they could possibly know that with such long period orbits (I don’t think we can detect precession via seeing just a fraction of an orbital cycle).

    So, I’m rather dubious regarding this planet 9.

    However, even if it doesn’t exist, it’s still a threat in exactly the same way manmade global warming is. 🙂

  3. I thought it was funny that about half of Brown’s “find planet 9” page was to justify his claim that it should be called a planet.

  5. A bunch of the models that describe the inward and then outward movement of Jupiter & Saturn shortly after solar system formation which led to the Late Heavy Bombardment 3.9 billion years ago have them ejecting a Neptune – sized planet from the outer solar system. If this was such a planet, it has been out there for a while. Sounds like there are over 10 KBOs in two sets of orbits structured around this postulated planet. Fun stuff. Cheers –

  6. I don’t get all the excitement over planet 9. We have known about Pluto for a long time…

    #planetlivesmatter

    1. Percival Lowell had his “Planet X.” That is what I propose we call this putative planet — Planet X (as in OS X where if you say “ex” you show yourself to be ignorant of all things Apple).

  7. Honestly, this was the first thing I thought of when I learned of the evidence for the existence of Planet 9.

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