Are We Close to Finding Planet 9?

So I can't promise I'll do the tutorial unless there is interest, but even if I do but you can't wait, here's the Zooniverse citizen science project: www.zooniverse.org/projects/marckuchner/backyard-w…

New Horizons, the only probe sent to explore a planet that was no longer a planet by the time it got there.

no matter how many times I hear the story of Neptune's discovery it doesn't get any less fantastic. to be able to predict something's existence simply because of an incongruence in another body's movement, and for the maths to be so precise? incredible! if Planet X does actually exist I really hope I'm around to hear about its discovery :)

Fun fact: The planets were called "wandering stars" at various points in history because unlike other stars they would move around the night sky. Various cultures believed they were the homes of or outright were gods. It is one reason they are named the way they are.

One of the coolest ideas (and most terrifying, I guess) I have heard about planet 9 is that it is not a planet that we haven't observed, but rather a primordial black hole. These are very small black holes that are predicted to possibly exist with our current understanding of astrophysics. Crazy thing is, if they do exist, they would be completely undetectable due to only having diameters in the range of an average apple or human fist... It probably isn't a black hole, but again, we do not know if these exist or not.

The cautionary tale of "Vulcan" should be mentioned with this however. The idea that math was so precise that it could be used to predict a planet due to perturbations within a planets orbit, it convinced a great many scientists that there was in fact a planet within the orbit of Mercury. Of course we now know there is no planet "Vulcan" (within our solar system at least!) and Mercury's orbit was explained through Einstein's determination of how gravity truly works within space-time.

Personally I hope Planet 9 exists just because it would be cool to have such a distant extreme planet in the sol system and maybe one of the agencies will decide to send a probe so far out

than you Alex for your excellent explanation about the solar system, I have love astronomy since I was six years old ( am now 62 yrs ).

It seems we are actually getting close to NOT finding a planet 9 honestly.

A small correction. The Babylonians did not determine which objects moved around the Sun. They determined which "stars" were moving irregularly. It was quite some time before people figured out that they were planets, and not just weird stars. It's actually quite easy to look at the sky every night and see every star in the same place as every other night except for a handful.

For those wondering why the telescope is named after a car brand, Subaru is what the Japanese call the Pleiades (and also why Subaru’s logo is 6 stars) Just a random chunk of trivia I know and figured I’d share because if I didn’t I’d be wondering why a car company had a telescope haha.

Pluto will always be a planet to me. I was so obsessed with the planets when I was a kid, that I had their order memorized before even hearing about the My Very Educated Mother mnemonic device, but I have definitely used mnemonic devices for other things.

Every time I watch something about the universe, my mind is just blown away. "This topic" is just so fascinating

It's amazing to me just how smart these early astronomers were.

the real prize for finding planet 9 is the friends we made along the way. thanks to all the asteroids and baby planets we found for continuing helping us even today.

I love this comment section. So much good-hearted talk about a ninth planet and primordial black holes, Vulcan and ancient astronomy -- I love it ❤️

Great content! I knew all of this but you still had me the entire time! You’re a better story teller than you are a science explainer, and you’re a great science explainer!

I went on Zooniverse to look for planet 9, but I got completely distracted by the Californian burrowing owls project. Those cheeky fluffy little blighters had me hooked!

I really like how you briefly introduced the viewers to the topic. How the planets were found, what methods were used and to what accuracy, which later gave a perfect context for the rest of the video to show how weird it is for us not to spot such object or predict it in any way shape or form. Personally I want to believe something is out there, it would be amazing to find a new planet! So I stay neutral in the discussion of Planet Nine but Im still interested in the process and I hope the scientists will find something. How exciting would THAT be?! Great video! :3

It is possible that the observed long-period objects are traces of the gravitational influence of a stray planet that visited the Solar System millions of years ago. The induced orbital changes are preserved, and the wandering planet can already travel far.