Is there a hidden planet in our solar system? Astronomers say the moment of truth is near | CNN

Astronomer Mike Brown discovered Eris in the Kuiper Belt , a vast ring of icy objects beyond Neptune ’s orbit.

The belt extends 50 times farther from the sun than Earth , with a secondary region that reaches beyond it for nearly 20 times that distance.

Brown , a professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech , said he got hate mail from kids and obscene calls from kids.

A study published in August 2023 proposes the existence of a hidden planet that’s between 1.5 and 3 times that of Earth .

The presence of the hidden planet is derived from computational models meant to explain the strange behaviors of populations of trans-Neptunian objects.

Other theories propose that the anomalies are due to something else entirely.

A new wide-angle telescope under construction could soon put the Planet Nine debate to rest.

Researchers are skeptical about the idea of a Neptune -mass Planet Nine .

Observing the planet directly would, of course, end all controversy, but every attempt so far has come up empty.

Other searches, such as one performed for a December 2021 study, have also come up short.