Astronomers Found a Planet Nine Candidate—But It’s in the Wrong Place

Astronomers have made progress toward identifying Planet Nine, the hypothesized ninth planet beyond Neptune. By analyzing infrared data from two decades of observations using NASA’s IRAS mission and Japan’s AKARI satellite, a team led by Terry Long Phan in Taiwan identified a single, slow-moving object that fits the characteristics of Planet Nine. This finding aligns with existing theories but doesn’t confirm it yet, as more data is needed to determine its orbit. The detection suggests a potential new planet beyond current estimates and could pave the way for future observations with telescopes like the Vera Rubin Observatory.