At first I thought we are a long ways off from an April fools prank. This appears to be for real. A couple of Caltech researchers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, have formulated a very intriguing argument for another planet on a widely eccentric orbit, far beyond the Kuiper belt.
There are some known Kuiper belt objects that all seem to have a related orbit. After ruling out a couple of scenarios they found one theory that aligns with the evidence in hand. There is another planet out there.
As of now this is all theoretical, no one has observed this new planet. But there is a lot of evidence indicating it is out there. Stuff like this is what gets me up in the morning. I have said for decades that if you do not learn something every single day, you were not paying attention. These guys were paying attention. Even if this all gets washed away with upcoming observations or new evidence to the contrary. They were still paying attention, and using their skills to solve a solar system oddity. Click the link!
http://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523
Evidence Based Reality 
Fuckin’ awesome. I love this kinda shit. I hope they find evidence of life on one of the planets Kepler found before I die. I gotta know!
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Me too!
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It will be very cool if this planet turns out to be real!
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I could not agree more. Stuff like this is crazy cool. I hope they soon get a handle on the particulars and confirm its existence.
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I’ve posted today on the expected time that will take with the Subaru telescope, over on my blog. We’re in for an exciting (and nail-biting) time I think.
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Well, I’ll hop on over there and have a look then.
I’m trying not to get too excited, a whole lot of work needs to be done yet. 🙂 But if this thing turns out to be real…wow!
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That’s what she said.
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You have no idea how often I hear that. 🙂 It has got to where ya can’t say bisquit without that coming up. (Still have two boys at home, and they have have friends over a lot, that eat us out of house and home, but they are all good kids)
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That’s what she said. 🙂
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Sweet. Of course, the jury is still out on whether or not Nemesis exists, a second star on a huge orbit.
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I just got back from investigating a bit on mass extinctions. I have heard the Nemesis tale, and it seems a tad far out there. But who knows?
Planet Nine here, I thought just maybe mass extinctions could be linked with it? It’s orbit could certainly disturb a lot of
Kuiper belt objects on its way through… (I’m not a conspiracy nut, just the notion hit me) It appears mass extinctions generally occur roughly between 20 and 30 million years. Which unfortunately for conspiricy theorists and nosey busybodies alike, kinda rules out Planet Nine simply because an orbit should be way more predictable than 20> — <30 million years.
Back to non tinfoil hat mode.
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I often wear a tinfoil hat, not to block the alien voices, but for the look. I find the silver brings out the blue in my eyes quite well.
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Ok, I want pics of you in a tinfoil hat!
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I’ll post a few soon, once the alien voices tell me I can. 🙂
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It could well be “Nemesis,” just dressed differently. Something has to explain 20/30 year cycle.
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Well, that was the thought than ran through my mind long enough to go wiki mass extinction events, that Planet Nine could be the basis for the Nemesis predictions.
But 20-30 million years is just way too much of a deviation for what an orbit should have? An orbit should be much more timely. Even disturbed Kuiper objects should have settled down within a time frame much less than 5-10 million years. At least I’d think so…
Damn I think my tinfoil hat is back on again.Let’s just pass them around so we can all have one.
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LOL
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