At a Solar System party, in a room full of planets, the asteroid belt is full of angst. And it should be. It’s out of place. It’s wearing a clown outfit but it’s not a costume party. What makes the asteroid belt so different? Well, for one, it’s not just one object like each individual…

This post could also be titled: How blogging and social media help make science happen. Here is the story.  Planet Nine was conjectured in late January 2016. In February 2016 I started to think about where Planet Nine may have come from. This led to 3 blog posts, each exploring a different origins story for…

It is hard to know where things come from. If I drink a Belgian-style beer brewed in Colorado using hops from Washington state and I live in France, where did the beer actually come from?  And what does that mean anyway? The cosmic situation is just as confusing.  We know where the planets are right…

We are discussing the origins of Planet Nine.  In part 1 we explored whether it could have been produced during an orbital instability in the early Solar System.  In part 2 we showed that Planet Nine could have been captured from another star.  Here we will explore another plausible idea that is a little less…

We are discussing the origins of Planet Nine.  In part 1 we explored whether it could have been produced during an orbital instability in the early Solar System.  Here we will explore a much more exotic origin. Scenario 2.  Planet Nine is a planet that formed around another star and was captured by the Sun…

It’s official: there might be an extra planet in the Solar System.  It’s called Planet Nine.  Like Hansel, it’s so hot right now. To find it you must trek past Uranus and Neptune into the dark reaches of the Solar System.  It’s on an orbit hundreds of times larger than Earth’s, that takes 20,000 years…