Scientists: Solid Evidence For 9th Planet In Solar System

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CAPE CANAVERAL (CBSMiami/AP) — Scientists say they finally have "solid evidence" for Planet X, a ninth planet on the fringes of our solar system.

The gas giant is thought to be almost as big as Neptune and orbiting billions of miles beyond Neptune's path — distant enough to take 10,000 to 20,000 years to circle the sun.

This Planet 9, as the two Caltech researchers call it, hasn't been spotted yet. They base their findings on mathematical and computer modeling, and anticipate its discovery via telescope within five years.

The two reported on their research Wednesday in the Astronomical Journal.

If discovered, researchers insist there will be no Pluto-style planetary debate. They ought to know; one of them, Mike Brown, is the so-called Pluto killer.

But NASA has argued there is no evidence of what they call the "hypothesized celestial body."

A 2014 study involving the examination of the entire sky in infrared light, according to NASA, found no object the size of Saturn or larger.

"The outer solar system probably does not contain a large gas giant planet, or a small, companion star," said Kevin Luhman of the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds at Penn State University, University Park, Pa., author of a paper in the Astrophysical Journal describing the results.

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