Planet X Part2

I've already discussed Planet X, the ninth planet in our solar system. As you might know, Pluto was once considered the ninth planet beyond Neptune. Since the discovery of other Kuiper belt planetoids, Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet. In the meantime, NASA has evidence for the existence of a ninth planet way out in the fringes of our solar system.

The reason that a ninth planet is suspected is because of a large swath of Kuiper belt objects has been swept clean, suggesting that a large object is responsible. Now, this hypothetical planet is in a far elliptical orbit that is at least 100 to 200 AU (Astronomical Units) away from the sun. This means that it's hundreds of billions miles away, and this is the reason it hasn't been seen. However, efforts are now being made to find it using infrared sensitive telescopes.
The mass of this unseen object is 10 times the mass of the Earth. That makes it a planet for sure.

There are four theories about what this Planet X would look like: 1. Super Earth, 2. Mega Pluto, 3. A gas giant, 4. A rogue planet.
If it were a super Earth it would probably have a molten core and be geologically active with volcanoes spewing hot lava on its surface. This is despite being so far away from the sun. The problem with this idea is that there wasn't enough material left over from the solar system's formation to create a large rocky planet like this. It would have formed in the inner solar system and then be booted out by Jupiter. There just isn't enough matter to create it and still have formed Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

A mega-sized Pluto is more plausible possibility because most of the Kuiper belt objects were formed from ice and some rocky material. However, its size is a problem. It would be immense and have a large ocean beneath a frozen ice surface. The good news is that it would easier to find because it would be bright.

A gas giant is even a better possibility and the calculated mass it in line with the other gas giants. As you might know the radius and mass of the gas giants drop off as they orbit further from the sun. Jupiter is the largest and Neptune is the smallest. A gas giant Planet Nine would be smaller than Neptune and probably be composed of mostly hydrogen and helium with a small rocky/ice core. In fact, the atmosphere of this planet would be transparent and provide a spectacular view with lots of aurora action form the sun's radiation.

The fourth possibility is even wilder. When our sun formed in a star nursery 4.7 billion years ago it was near other new stars. It's possible that our sun became a thief and stole a planet from another star before being flung out of the nursery to orbit the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy. This isn't that far fetched. There are rogue planets floating all over the place. They're planets that formed around a star and then were kicked out by a large gas giant. Planet X could be such a planet.

Soon, we will know if a ninth planet exists. It will add to our knowledge of the solar system and provide a target for a probe to obtain a sample and bring it back. The material from Planet X would tell us whether it formed in our solar system or was captured by our sun from an alien system.

Thanks for reading.