50 years ago, scientists had hints of a planet beyond Pluto

Cometary evidence of a planet beyond Pluto Science News, May 6, 1972

There have been suggestions that our solar system might have a tenth planet…. In the April Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, a mathematician … presents what he says is “some very interesting evidence of a planet beyond Pluto.” The evidence comes from calculations of the orbit of Halley’s comet.

Update

The 1972 evidence never yielded a planet, but astronomers haven’t stopped looking — though it became a search for Planet 9 with Pluto’s 2006 switch to dwarf status. In the mid-2010s, scientists hypothesized that the tug of a large planet 500 to 600

→ Continue reading at Science News

More from author

Related posts

Advertisment

Latest posts

GM pauses sales of Chevy Blazer EV over software issues | CNN Business

New York CNN  —  GM has paused sales of its brand new Chevy Blazer EVs after some customers reported...

Crypto’s 2023 was marred by fraud and scandal. It was its best year ever | CNN Business

New York CNN  —  Crypto’s 14th year in existence was one marred by scandal, bankruptcy, fraud and regulatory squabbling....

The Tantalizing Mystery of the Solar System’s Hidden Oceans

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine.For most of humankind’s existence, Earth was the only known ocean-draped world, seemingly unlike any...