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Full Version: Planet Nine Challenged: "There's Not One Planet, But Rather Several Beyond Pluto"
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http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/201...pluto.html

EXCERPT: In the race towards the discovery of a ninth planet in our solar system, scientists from around the world strive to calculate its orbit using the tracks left by the small bodies that move well beyond Neptune. Now, astronomers from Spain and Cambridge University have confirmed, with new calculations, that the orbits of the six extreme trans-Neptunian objects that served as a reference to announce the existence of Planet Nine are not as stable as it was thought. [...] "These objects would escape from the Solar System in less than 1.5 billion years, -he adds-, and in the case of 2004 VN112, 2007 TG422 and 2013 RF98 they could abandon it in less than 300 million years; what is more important, their orbits would become really unstable in just 10 million years, a really short amount of time in astronomical terms." [...] In any case, the statistical and numerical evidence [...] leads them to suggest that the most stable scenario is one in which there is not just one planet, but rather several more beyond Pluto, in mutual resonance, which best explains the results. "That is to say we believe that in addition to a Planet Nine, there could also be a Planet Ten and even more," the Spanish astronomer points out.... Alexander Mustill [...] raised the idea that Planet Nine may have come from outside the Solar System, that is to say, that it could be an exoplanet. His hypothesis is that around 4.5 billion years ago, our then young Sun "stole" this planet from a neighbouring star [...] Other scientists, however, believe that this scenario is improbable....