More clues about where to search for a possible ninth planet lurking in the fringes of our solar system are emerging from the Kuiper belt, the icy debris field beyond Neptune. And new calculations suggest that the putative planet might be brighter — and a bit easier to find — than once thought. Planetary scientists Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, both at Caltech, announced this evidence recently. Now they’ve used it to refine Planet Nine’s properties and narrow in on where it might be hiding.
Planet Nine’s average distance from the sun is most likely between 500 and 600 times as far as Earth’s, Brown and Batygin report. Its orbit is highly stretched and tipped by about 30 degrees relative to the rest of the solar system, taking it well above and below the orbits of the eight known worlds. And right now, it’s probably near its farthest point from the sun — possibly as far as 250 billion kilometers away — in a large patch of sky around the constellation Orion.
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http://www.calacademy.org/explore-science/planet-nine/?utm_medium=mobileapp&utm_term=&utm_camnpaign=sciencetoday&utm_content=2016.01.29_planet-nine_video&utm_source=android
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