What if I told you our solar system had another mysterious planet? It’s not a terribly new concept, but as our telescopic technology gets better we’re finding more evidence that another planet might just be out there.
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00:00 What if I told you our solar system had another mysterious planet?
00:07 It's not a terribly new concept, but as our telescopic technology gets better, we're
00:11 finding more evidence that another planet might just be out there.
00:14 A big part of that evidence is the orbit of objects out beyond dwarf planet Pluto, in
00:18 the Kuiper belt.
00:19 Those objects move in a much more oval orbit, and when simulations of gravitational models
00:24 are used to figure out why, they suggest that not only is another planet likely lurking
00:28 out there, but also that it's a large one, ten times the mass of Earth or more.
00:32 So why haven't we been able to capture a glimpse of it yet?
00:35 Well if it is out there, experts say it's likely 20 times the distance that Neptune
00:39 is to the Sun, and Neptune is more than 2.5 billion miles from it, meaning this planet
00:44 would be 55.4 billion miles from the Sun.
00:48 That's made even more difficult since we can only look for it at certain times of the year
00:51 during moonless nights.
00:52 And it's even harder since the primary way we look for distant planets is to watch for
00:56 a dip in light as it passes in front of its orbiting star, which is impossible when we're
01:01 so much closer than it is to ours.
01:03 [Music]