The researchers ran computational simulations that included gravitational interactions with all large planets, the Galactic tide, and even passing stars. They also incorporated initial conditions reflecting the migration of giant planets and the early evolution of the Sun within a star cluster.
The simulation findings showed that the orbital properties of these Neptune-crossing objects closely matched those predicted by a model that included Planet Nine.
The study is far from conclusive. There are quite a few reasons why we might not have spotted Planet Nine, including the fact that it's very dim and very far away. And it's also possible that we're not operating with sufficient data – everything that far from the Sun is hard to see, so the data we could have may be a result of selection bias, limited only to what we can see with our current technology.
“I never thought I would be talking about how there’s evidence for a trans-Neptunian planet, but I believe that unlike all of those previous times, in this case, we’re actually right,” he added.
If this mystery object really is Planet Nine, it would have a mass greater than Neptune, and currently be about 700 times farther from the sun than Earth is.
The search for an unknown planet in our solar system has inspired astronomers for more than a century. Now, a recent study suggests a potential new candidate, which the paper’s authors have dubbed Planet Y.
The planet has not been detected but merely inferred by the tilted orbits of some distant objects in the Kuiper Belt — a large ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune’s orbit. Something, the researchers said, must be disturbing these orbits and tilting them.
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