Scientists spot a potential new planet

Though Pluto has been ‘given the flick’ the solar system may have a ninth planet after all.

Scientists have potentially found a new planet five thousand times bigger than Pluto and billions of kilometres away.

Ross and John spoke to Dr Alan Duffy, astrophysicist from Swinburne University, who explained objects on the edge of our solar system had been spotted moving in ways consistent with gravity-pull from a new planet ten times bigger than Earth. 

‘That really would be a new planet, there’s no doubt about that,’ Dr Duffy said. ‘What we’ve seen are distant objects are the very edge of our planet moving in very strange and unexpected ways.’

‘We have a bit of a mammoth task on our hands. The reason we may have missed this is because we’re talking about something so far away, two hundred times further from the Sun than we are.’

Listen as Dr Alan Duffy explains the new findings