Planet Nine ruled out as the cause of outer solar system ‘mystery orbits’according to new research

Planet Nine has been a long-theorized explanation for the strange orbits of some objects at the outer most regions of the solar system, but a new model suggested by researchers from Cambridge does away with the need for the planet. These odd orbits could instead be explained by the combined gravitational force of small objects orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune, say researchers.

The hypothesised Planet Nine would need a mass of approximately ten times that of Earth to have the effect needed to explain the odd orbits and clustering of extreme trans-Neptunian objects (eTNOs). These eTNOs tend to have their points of closest approach to the Sun clustered in one direction, and many of their orbits are similarly tilted. Recent research has even suggested that there may be two hidden planets acting as culprits for this peculiar behaviour.

The alternative explanation to the ‘Planet Nine’ hypothesis, which has been put forward by researchers at the University of Cambridge and the American University of Beirut and is…