Sorry, Pluto: There Could Be A Real 9th Planet

Mobiles in classrooms across the world could be getting a little heavier. The existence of "Planet Nine" hasn't been confirmed, but a new paper suggests there's "much more of a possibility" that the unseen planet has been lurking on the edge of the solar system this whole time. And what's more, it's about 10 times bigger than Earth. On January 20, Konstantin Batygin and Michael E. Brown, both astronomers and professors at Caltech, published an article in The Astronomical Journal titled "Evidence For a Distant Giant Planet in the Solar System." According to their research, this maybe-planet is affecting the orbits of smaller objects in space, specifically the dwarf planet Sedna. They estimate there's a 70% chance it's the real deal. One important thing to note: Brown was one of the scientists who debunked Pluto as a planet back in 2006. His Twitter handle is @plutokiller. Luckily, he seems a lot more confident about this new planet. "This would be a real ninth planet," Brown said in a statement. "There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third. It's a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that's still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting." We're still rooting for Pluto, though.