Scientists have confirmed a discovery made some three-years ago regarding a new dwarf planet on the edge of our Solar System which gives a fair bit of weight to the theory that a large, hidden ninth planet – the Planet X theory – exists somewhere in the deep reaches of space.
[jwplayer gvkTjsCy]
The tiny new planet, a roughly 200-mile wide rock officially named TG387, orbits roughly 65 times further away from the sun than Earth. For reference, Pluto‘s orbit is a mere 49 times further away from hot old mate than we are. An orbit of that size means the new dwarf planet takes around 40,000 years to complete one single lap around the sun.
That orbit puts the new dwarf planet in a group of distant solar system rock objects that scientists believe point to the existence of Planet X; the mythical, theorised planet beyond the edge of the solar system that apparently chills in absolute darkness and has thus-far eluded detection.
Interestingly enough, and in the most profoundly science-level moment ever, the new dwarf planet has been nicknamed “The Goblin,” partly because, and we quote:
For those wondering about The Goblin’s name, I was told by one of the astronomers: “human examination of the candidate slow-moving objects occurred in roughly the Halloween time frame”
— Hannah Devlin (@hannahdev) October 2, 2018
“Human examination of the candidate slow-moving objects occurred in roughly the Halloween time frame.”
*inhales deeply*
Scientific speculation asserts that a planet estimated to be roughly 10-times the size of Earth exists somewhere beyond Neptune, and it’s this planet that’s pushing all these much smaller planets and rock objects into orbit around our sun.
But because of the theorised 10-20,000-year orbit cycle such a planet would have, pinpointing it has proven fairly bloody tricky, as you’d imagine.
Still, there’s a new rock in our Solar System, friends. And it’s name?
It’s The Goblin.
All hail The Goblin.
