Undiscovered Planet May Be Hiding at the Edge of the Solar System

[Joshimodo]

Indeed it is, but I doubt our Sun's gravitational field would be powerful enough to drag a planet from whatever solar system light years away.

It's unlikely that's the case - It could be an orphan planet. Solar systems sometimes diffuse, or have planets knocked off course.

 

[Freemon]

Jeez... it's not a planet, it's a mass relay. The gravitational disturbance is caused by the huge mass effect field caused by the massive structure and it's element zero core. Ask any salarian, he will tell you.

 

[Daverson]

11th planet, don't forget Ceres. Everyone forgets Ceres... you're all so quick to go crying about Pluto loosing it's planet status, Ceres needs love too! She was a planet over 100 years before anyone even knew about Pluto! D=

(Also, a quick read-up on wikipedia tells me it's likely to be a dwarf star, which isn't a planet per-say, rather the remains of another main sequence star)

 

[Mumorpuger]

Back when I was *your* age we had nine planets! And we liked it!

 

[icyneesan]

Inb4 we run into Turians and everyone starts taking polls out of asses and beating each other to death with them

 

[spectrenihlus]

OK seeing as we can see planets many light years away wouldn't you think someone one have noticed something this close and massive?

 

[Ignatz_Zwakh]

2011- Evidence is found suggesting the existence of a previously unknown planet within our solar system. This planet, found upon the fringes of the Milky Way, is dubbed "Tyche".

2014- Tychian forces launch a preliminary assault upon the Earth, crippling civilization as we know it. Mankind is subjugated and added to their army of slave races.

COULD HAPPEN! :O

 

[Voodoomancer]

It's New Pluto!

But seriously, this is awesome.

 

[Baresark]

Not to sound like a wet potato chip, but this is relatively new, not really news though. Good try though. My room mate is a huge astronomy buff, and he told me this information at least a year ago.

 

[Theron Julius]

Four times the size of Jupiter? I wonder if that would be enough to make a small star. A small star isn't terribly bigger than Jupiter to start with, although they're much more dense (I'll give a couple of reference pictures below). Four times bigger might be enough mass to make it a star in the making, a very small star, but it could be a star nonetheless.

Spoiler

http://www.astrobio.net/images/galleryimages_images/Gallery_Image_6538.jpg

Spoiler

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim//2010/07/30/dwarf.jpg

 

[Singularly Datarific]

Noooo! The conspiracy theorists will mob this theory now in justifying doomsday predictions!
On the other hand, the idea of a gas giant orbiting a trillion miles away is pretty cool...

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

It would be nice to have nine planets again.

Yep.

I vote for Typhon as the name is it's real.

 

[thiosk]

Planet X for the 21st century. Who knows whats orbiting out in the oort, but I highly doubt there is a massive, undiscovered planet near by.

Saying "Hey, a planet would explain goofy comet orbits" is not proof positive of a planet.

 

[brodie21]

OH FUCK ALL SCIENCE FICTION IS WRONG GET ME THE WHITE-OUT

Very interesting, an extrasolar planet in our own solar system will be a very interesting subjet of study in a few hundred years when we can actually study it. Although I kept blinking at how it was named after the Penny Arcade guy (it wasn't, that one is Tycho). I wonder what its real name will end up being, since all the cool mythological names are taken.

how about Nebuchadnezzar, or Ragnarok, or Amon which is the greek version of the egyptian term for 'hidden one'. i like Amon the best

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

Could be Yuggoth...

Beware the Mi-Go.

 

[The Great JT]

I hope this is real. We need a new ninth planet due to Science declaring Pluto is not a planet (EVEN THOUGH IT TOTALLY IS).

 

[BrownGaijin]

First thought: "And a group of experts believe that it will hit the Earth in the year 2012." /sarcasm

Second thought: "Aww they're naming it after Penny Arcade co-creator. Oh wait that's Tyche Tycho."

Noooo! The conspiracy theorists will mob this theory now in justifying doomsday predictions!
On the other hand, the idea of a gas giant orbiting a trillion miles away is pretty cool...

I agree, but then again conspiracy theorists would exploit a newly discovered species of sponge in justifying doomsday predictions if they had the chance.

 

[ryo02]

Yay, we may actually get a another 9th planet to our solar system. But you motherfuckers in the science community better not go making anymore decisions like what you did with Pluto.

It would be nice to have nine planets again.

Yep.

I vote for Typhon as the name is it's real.

Back when I was *your* age we had nine planets! And we liked it!

Great. Now we can name this new planet "Pluto" and forget that other debacle ever happened.

I hope this is real. We need a new ninth planet due to Science declaring Pluto is not a planet (EVEN THOUGH IT TOTALLY IS).

yeah the universe clearly wants there to by 9 planets in our system you hear that IAU? dont &@#$ with the universe.

 

[higgs20]

i say bring back Pluto and ignore this new guy.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

OK seeing as we can see planets many light years away wouldn't you think someone one have noticed something this close and massive?

Simple answer: no. We detect planets around stars by two methods: wobbling, and dimming (to use colloquial terms). We need to actually see the star for either method, which is why this won't work here. The WISE mission might capture it accidentally, but unfortunately we really have no real means of locating it aside from a vague guess using statistics. We'll know more in two years or so when the data has been analyzed.
Incidentally, this is hardly news. The theory has been around for ages, and it hasn't really changed much. Tyche...meh, I preferred "Nemesis." At least that had a bit of style...