Are you tired of Earth's neighborhood having only 7 other planets (# VoltaPlutão)? Got excited about the latest news about a possible Planet Nine? So you can raise your expectations: According to astronomers, the edge of the Solar System is likely to hold at least 2 unknown planets!

It all started in January, when scientists released data on Planet Nine: it would be in a place beyond Neptune, would have a mass 10 times larger than Earth's and a very irregular orbit around the Sun, which would last between 10, 000. and 20, 000 years to complete.

The evidence supporting these claims, according to researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), would be in the unusual movement of six large celestial objects on the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune. These movements would be influenced by the Planet Nine.

Discovery of unusual movements of 6 smaller objects reinforces the idea of ​​the existence of Planet Nine

A new planet for us to be happy

What is changing now, however, is that Caltech scientists have recalculated objects with errant motions and come to the conclusion that just one planet would not be sufficient to influence these irregular orbits: other large planets working “together” would be needed to do so. that the objects analyzed do not “escape” from the Solar System.

This is because the gravitational pull exerted on objects by the possible Planet Nine would create such irregular orbits that they would eventually expel these bodies into outer space. At least three of these wandering objects could "escape" from the Solar System in less than 300 million years, according to experts - a tiny age close to the immensity of existence.

Mike Brown, a scientist who made the initial discoveries that indicate the existence of Planet Nine, is quite skeptical about the changes in his data. "I think it's too early to start speculating on a second planet, but overall I'm confused by the results, " Brown said.

New planets have influenced the orbits of 6 objects in the Kuiper Belt, as well as Neptune

Better one in the belt than two in the imagination

Since the possibilities of Planet Nine have surfaced, much has been speculated about its consistency and why it is “hidden” so far - there are people who believe it may have come from elsewhere in the Universe and found the perfect neighborhood there. periphery of the Solar System.

NASA, however, has remained quite conservative on the subject. “The possibility of a new planet is certainly exciting for me as a planetary scientist. This is not, however, the detection or discovery of a new planet - what we are seeing is an early prediction based on models from limited observations, but it is the beginning of a process that could lead to an exciting result. ” described Jim Green of the space agency's planetary science division.

Now, for us lay people, who are orphaned by Pluto, it costs us nothing to dream, right? With that in mind, we created a poll with suggestions of Greek and Roman god names to give these two new planets. Which do you think should be chosen?

Choosing Hebe, the goddess of youth, to symbolize one of the new planets would be a pretty sweet idea, do you agree?