A previously unknown giant planet may have been discovered lurking in the outer reaches of our solar system, US scientists announced on Wednesday.
Nicknamed Planet Nine, the object “has a mass about 10 times that of Earth” and follows a “bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the distant solar system,” said a statement by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
“In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the Sun.”
The report was published in the Astronomical Journal.
Researchers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown say have not yet observed the object directly. Rather, they found it through mathematical modeling and computer simulations.
I – Word understanding
Bizarre – strange or unusual
Lurking – remain hidden
II – Have Your Say
1. Brown and colleagues say Planet Nine could have been cast off during the early formation of the solar system, when four major cores grabbed up the gas around them and formed Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Have you already imagined how it’s look like?
