Pluto, famously known as a dwarf planet, is a celestial body orbiting the Sun. But it is not considered a planet. Why? Because Pluto falls short of being classified as a full-sized planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as it fails to meet one of the three criteria used for categorising planets. Well, it satisfies the majority of the criteria, except one - It has not “cleared the neighbourhood” around its orbit. The other two criteria are it must be in orbit around the Sun and it has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium. Now, in the absence of Pluto, there are only 8 planets left in our solar system.
However, arguments about a 9th planet in our solar system have raged for years. The quest for such a planet continues till date! And now, the latest study suggests the actual possibility of a 9th planet in our solar system! No, not a dwarf planet like Pluto, but a Super-Earth! Here is what the study suggests.
The report published in The Conversation considered a hypothetical planet dubbed Planet 9 which is characterized as 4-8 times the mass of the Earth and extremely far from the Sun, around 10 times the distance of Pluto or even more. This 9th planet is considered to be different from the existing planets in our solar system.
There are essentially two categories of planets -- terrestrial planets having solid surfaces, namely Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and on the other hand, there are gas giants such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. This Planet 9 would be somewhere between these two types and will be characterised as a Super-Earth.
Considering that, if it exists, it would be quite dim and actually getting to see it would be impossible and therefore it would have to be surmised from other
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