A tenth planet may be lurking in our solar system, according to calculations by researchers at the University of Bordeaux. The planet is believed to be located in the Oort Cloud, an area that cannot be observed with current technology. While our solar system is known to have eight planets, some astronomers suspect that there may be a ninth planet beyond the orbit of Neptune. However, the newly discovered planet is even larger than the hypothetical Planet 9 and would be comparable in size to Saturn or Jupiter.
The researchers discovered evidence of the tenth planet while modeling the early history of our solar system. They simulated the orbital displacement of the gas giants in the outer part of our solar system, hypothesizing that these planets did not originally form in their current positions but migrated there during the instability period of the early solar system. The study suggests that a fifth gas giant may have been ejected from our solar system during this period, but could still be part of the system on an extremely eccentric orbit. The likelihood of a planet the size of Neptune being captured in the Oort Cloud is estimated to be around seven percent.
The Oort Cloud is a distant astronomical region that is currently beyond our reach with existing technology. Comets that occasionally appear in the inner solar system are the only window into this mysterious area. The cloud is a spherical collection of astronomical bodies, with the inner boundary estimated to be around 200,000 astronomical units and the outer boundary extending up to three light years. A hypothetical giant planet orbiting in this environment would be at least ten times further from our sun than the supposed Planet 9.
