'Planet Nine Alert': Scientists zero in on a new candidate beyond Neptune
Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
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Hidden Giant
Astronomers have reignited the search for a hidden planet beyond Neptune, possibly spotting a new candidate using infrared space data after decades of mystery.
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Strange Pull
Odd clustering of distant objects hinted at an unseen massive body influencing their orbits — the long-theorized Planet Nine, proposed in 2016 by Batygin and Brown.
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Infrared Hunt
Instead of optical telescopes, scientists used IRAS and AKARI’s far-infrared all-sky surveys, comparing sky maps taken 23 years apart to catch slow-moving objects.
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Smart Search
Using a special catalog (AKARI-MUSL), researchers focused on faint, moving sources instead of bright objects, sharpening their hunt for distant planetary candidates.
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Signature Drift
They searched for bodies drifting around 3 arcminutes per year — a predicted slow crawl across the sky, matching expectations for a planet hundreds of AU away.
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Thirteen to One
From an initial 13 possible matches, researchers narrowed down to a single promising candidate, meeting both movement and brightness predictions.
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Precise Match
The candidate’s angular separation between 42–69.6 arcminutes and timed detections fit perfectly with what a Planet Nine–like body should exhibit.
Next Steps
Infrared data alone can't confirm the find; the team urges urgent follow-ups with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) to nail down the object's orbit and nature.
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Hope Rekindled
While caution remains, this candidate brings fresh hope that the long-elusive Planet Nine might finally be real — and hiding at the edge of our Solar System.