General / Off-Topic Possible hint for the 9th planet (or the 10th if you are like me and regard Pluto as a planet)?

[Northpin]

Noticed this article on the Science Alert website which seemed interesting to me

Hints of a Hidden Structure Detected at The Edge of The Solar System

If you travel far enough away from the Sun, the Solar System becomes a lot more populated.

www.sciencealert.com

It basically says that apparently the Kuiper Belt is somewhere 30-50 AU - so beyond Neptune and out to 50 AU - then there is a 20 AU gap, then the material density increases to form a second Kuiper Belt between 70 and 90 AU

Now, that 20 AU gap - i would expect to find a big arxed "shepherd moon" somewhere in that GAP.
And by that i mean a rather large planet, maybe not quite Jupiter size, but definitely way bigger than any of the inner planets.

Am i nuts? The article doesn't mention this possibility, but it looks quite compelling to me

 

[metatheurgist]

There are other articles that suggest a possible extra planet, maybe this is supporting evidence.

 

[CMDR Saigon]

Hopefully a few newer telescopes and surveys will finally confirm this one way or another. Exciting times.

 

[angusmadmac1]

Hypothetical Planet X

The existence of Planet X remains theoretical at this point. This hypothetical Neptune-sized planet would circle our Sun far beyond Pluto.

science.nasa.gov

Definitely planet 10

 

[Morbad]

It basically says that apparently the Kuiper Belt is somewhere 30-50 AU - so beyond Neptune and out to 50 AU - then there is a 20 AU gap, then the material density increases to form a second Kuiper Belt between 70 and 90 AU

Now, that 20 AU gap - i would expect to find a big arxed "shepherd moon" somewhere in that GAP.
And by that i mean a rather large planet, maybe not quite Jupiter size, but definitely way bigger than any of the inner planets.

Am i nuts? The article doesn't mention this possibility, but it looks quite compelling to me

I think anything that large in this location would have a clear effect on Neptune and would have been discovered long ago as a result. Voyager 2 pretty conclusively proved that there was no unexplained gravitational influence on Neptune or Uranus.

Hypothetical Planet X

The existence of Planet X remains theoretical at this point. This hypothetical Neptune-sized planet would circle our Sun far beyond Pluto.

science.nasa.gov

Definitely planet 10

This hypothetical planet X would be ~600 AU out, or ten times the orbital radius of what Northpin is thinking of.