Planet hunting: Astronomers have found more evidence of the existence of a mysterious planet on the edge of our solar system. Konstantin Bogytin and his team of astronomers based their latest study on a series of trans-Neptunian objects, objects located at the edge of the Solar System beyond Neptune and orbiting the Sun at a distance of 250 times the Earth.

Astronomers generally do not look for these objects when searching for the ninth planet because they interfere with Neptune’s orbit. But Bogitin decided to focus on these objects to better understand their movements. They ran a series of simulations to see how the galactic flow of the Milky Way and other objects in the Solar System, including the nearest giant planets, affected their orbits.

It turns out that a model that includes Planet Nine, a planet long suspected but so far confirmed to be on the outskirts of our solar system, best explains the observed behavior. According to Bohytin, this is not the only possible explanation, but the best and strongest statistical evidence that it actually exists.

Pluto was long considered the ninth planet in our solar system, but in 2006 the International Astronomical Union reclassified it as a dwarf planet.

Astronomers may have even more answers in the near future. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction in Chile, will scan the sky in hopes of unlocking the sky using a powerful 3.2 gigapixel camera with a 1.5-meter-wide optical lens called the Legacy Space and Time Survey (LSST). More than just the mysteries of the universe. This will also allow astronomers to better understand the most distant objects in our solar system and help determine whether the ninth planet is real or fictional.

The new observatory is expected to become operational in January 2025. Bogitin and his team published their findings in a paper titled “Generation of Low-Inclination TNOs Passing Neptune by the Ninth Planet,” now available on the open source repository arXiv.