Planet X confirmed by science.

[EvilYeti]

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/ ... lar-system

[sparks]

Yes, but is it the Planet X we know and love or, is it...nice?

[EvilYeti]

I just realized that it was called "Planet X" in that it was the 10th planet (at the time). X being the Roman Numeral for ten.

[Anaxagoras]

So Planet IX really (sorry Abdul!)

Also not "confirmed".

Batygin and Brown inferred its presence from the peculiar clustering of six previously known objects that orbit beyond Neptune. They say there’s only a 0.007% chance, or about one in 15,000, that the clustering could be a coincidence. Instead, they say, a planet with the mass of 10 Earths has shepherded the six objects into their strange elliptical orbits, tilted out of the plane of the solar system.

We'll see. I hope they're right, but seeing the actual planet itself would be confirmation, this is still an inference, and maybe there's another explanation they don't know about besides "chance". That said, I'm guessing they are probably right. Brown does have a track record of finding new trans-Neptunian objects after all, so I certainly wouldn't discount what he says.

[Anaxagoras]

Others, like planetary scientist Dave Jewitt, who discovered the Kuiper belt, are more cautious. The 0.007% chance that the clustering of the six objects is coincidental gives the planet claim a statistical significance of 3.8 sigma—beyond the 3-sigma threshold typically required to be taken seriously, but short of the 5 sigma that is sometimes used in fields like particle physics. That worries Jewitt, who has seen plenty of 3-sigma results disappear before. By reducing the dozen objects examined by Sheppard and Trujillo to six for their analysis, Batygin and Brown weakened their claim, he says. “I worry that the finding of a single new object that is not in the group would destroy the whole edifice,” says Jewitt, who is at UC Los Angeles. “It’s a game of sticks with only six sticks.”

[Witness]

Direct detection

Telescopes have begun searching for the object which, due to its extreme distance from the Sun, would reflect little sunlight and potentially evade telescope sightings. It is expected to have an apparent magnitude fainter than 22, making it at least 600 times fainter than Pluto. The primary search is being conducted using the Subaru Telescope and is expected to take about five years.

If the planet is close to its perihelion, astronomers could identify it based on existing image captures. For the most distant part of the orbit, Earth's largest telescopes are required. However, if the planet is currently located in between, many telescopes could spot Planet Nine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Nine

[Doctor X]

HONK!






Oh wait!

--J.D.