Simulations suggest that a planet the size of Earth or Mars could be hiding beyond Neptune

A team of space scientists published an article in Annual review of astronomy and astrophysics suggesting that there could be a planet the size of Earth or Mars orbiting beyond Neptune. They further suggest that simulations of the creation of the solar system show that such a planet could have been pushed from outer regions of the solar system by gas giants.

As scientists continue to study the solar system, they are still trying to understand not only how the planets came into being, but also why they occupy their current orbits. In this new effort, the authors note that simulations of the evolution of the solar system are not yet able to explain the current configuration due to missing information. And they suspect that the missing information involves a planet that once revolved around the sun in the outer solar system (where the gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune reside) but now exists beyond the edges of the solar system or even in the depths space.

The authors note that there is something strange about the current configuration of the planets, which has four inner rock planets, an asteroid belt and then four gas giants in the outer solar system. Beyond the giants are dwarf planets and other objects such as comets. The researchers believe that something is missing. They argue that the natural evolution of our solar system is unlikely to have four gas giants and then nothing but dwarfs. Logic suggests that there should be planets of other sizes, and their simulations support them. Adding another planet the size of Earth or Mars to the outer solar system, perhaps between two of the gas giants, produces a more accurate model, at least during the early stages of development. Eventually, such a planet would have been pushed further into space, either by joining the dwarves or by being pushed throughout interstellar space, where it would travel on its own. They conclude that if such a planet exists at the outer edges of the solar system, new telescopes under construction might be able to spot it and thus confirm their theory.

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