The possibility of a major planet lurk in the outer reach of the solar system has profit new primer coat , based on the orbits of recently fall upon objects . There is a Modern twist to the up-to-the-minute evidence , however , with suggestions of not one but two big planets at mind - bending distances from the Sun .

The pursuance for a " Planet X " beyond Neptune has been going on for more than a C . Recently , two gnome   planetsSednaand2102 VP113have been identified with orbits extending to distances hundreds of time further from the Sun than our own .

removed as these eye socket are , they are too penny-pinching to be part of theOort Cloud , a collection of comet that mostly orbitat distance beyond5000AU .

or else it is suppose that these objects form closer to the Lord’s Day . The gravitative influence of a large planet is one explanation of how their orbits interchange . The theory has its own problem – if we ca n’t explain how physical object like these came to be revolve at such distances , then it ’s equally unreadable how a theoretical major planet came to be there .

Scott Sheppard , of the Carnegie Institution for Science , and the Gemini Observatory ’s Chad Trujillo noted a clustering in the reach of the solar system ’s most distant known entity , many of which they had discovered . TenKuiper Belt Objects , and minor planets Sedna and 2012 VP113 , all have orbits that cross theplane of the solar systemat angles that run from shoal to steep .

Yet all of these removed physical object reach their secretive point to the Sunday just when they are near the plane the planet circulate in . The scientist consider this unlikely to be a conjunction , and ruminate it might be a sign of a planet influencing all of their orbits .

InMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Lettersbrothers Carlos and Raul de la Fuente Marcos of Complutense University of Madrid have taken this a footmark further . “ The analysis of several possible scenario powerfully suggest that at least two trans - Plutonian planets must survive , ” they conclude .

Even more latterly , Lorenzo Iorio of the Italian Ministry of Education , Universities and Research hasargued in the same journalthat if planet X exists , it must be much further out than Trujillo and Sheppard purpose . How far it would need to be depends on its spate , but an obscure aim twice as heavy as the Earth could not be less than 500 AU from the Sun , Iorio maintains .

Other astronomers are more cautious . David Jewitt of the University of California ,   Los AngelestoldScience News , " The outer solar system can be full of all sort of unseen and interesting things , ” Jewitt says , “ but the argument … for a massive perturber is a mo puzzling . ” Jewitt notes that if the Kuiper Belt Objects in the Trujillo / Sheppard study have a satellite keeping them in descent , it may well be Neptune . Sedna and 2012 VP113 are too far out for this to be true for them as well , but it is far easy to explain two orbits as coincidence than twelve .

While the question may only be finally settle by the discovery of a big planet scupper in space , a number of teams have redouble their efforts to obtain modest sized object whose orbits might facilitate us lend acceptance to , or reject , the theories propose so far .