Before we get started with this article, let me make one thing clear.

PLUTO is the ninth planet. We’ll reference a ninth planet in this article, but it would effectively be the tenth planet if discovered. That’s it. We can continue now…

Scientists have worked for decades trying to prove the existence of a ninth planet beyond Neptune using the same methods that were used to discover our two outermost planets. Asteroid clustering in the Kuiper Belt has along led astronomers to theorize that there could be undiscovered gas giants similar to Neptune and Uranus out there. While these efforts are often lumped into conspiracy theories about Planet X and Nibiru, the search for other gaseous bodies in the solar system is very real and serious work.

According to a recent Space.com article, efforts by telescopes like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile could help unlock some of the most distant solar system mysteries and help us identify potential candidates for Planet Nine. By using these high powered observatories, researchers are hoping to find patterns in the clustering and unusual travel patterns of Neptune-crossing objects. However, it will most likely take direct observation of such a planet in order to convince a majority of people that it actually exists.

Until then, Planet Nine remains similar to Planet X as a phantom wandering across the heavens, waiting to be discovered.

Read More: https://www.space.com/astronomy/solar-system/is-there-a-hidden-planet-9-in-our-solar-system