NEW research claims five extra rocky planets could exist on the edge of our Solar System.
According to a simulation, it’s possible several rogue planets are nearby and we just haven’t spotted them yet.
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A rogue planet is a term used to describe a planet that isn’t orbiting a star.
According to Live Science, Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope has already identified hundreds of these.
A rogue planet has never been found in our Solar System but some researchers think it’s possible that we’ll find one.
This possibility is revealed in a study published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The study states that “free-floating planets with mass strictly greater than that of Mars may exist in the outer solar system.”
Study author and doctoral candidate Amir Siraj proposed that the Sun could have lured rocky rogue planets our way.
He used models and equations related to previously spotted rogue planets to work out how many could be hiding in our Solar System.
A total of 100 million simulations were conducted thanks to special software.
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From this data, it was concluded that two planets with a Mars-like mass may exist in the Solar System.
Alternatively, three to five planets with a mass like Mercury could be present.
Siraj isn’t alone in thinking there are extra planets in our eight planet Solar System.
There are scientists who believe there’s a mysterious Planet X lurking in the Kuiper Belt.
The Kuiper Belt is a region behind Pluto that features a vast amount of icy objects.
Even Nasa has acknowledged the hypothetical Planet X.
The US space agency says on its website: “Caltech researchers have found mathematical evidence suggesting there may be a “Planet X” deep in the solar system.
“This hypothetical Neptune-sized planet orbits our Sun in a highly elongated orbit far beyond Pluto.”
It’s thought Planet X could have a mass that’s 10 times that of Earth.
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
