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What if Planet Nine is a Mini Black Hole
Some astronomers believe there is a massive planet, far beyond the orbit of Neptune, orbiting the sun — but after years of searching, scientists have not found this theoretical world, which they've dubbed "Planet Nine."
This has spurred theorists to consider a radical hypothesis: Perhaps Planet Nine is not a planet but rather a small black hole that might be detectable from the theoretical radiation emitted from its edge, so-called Hawking radiation.
For centuries, astronomers have used variations in planetary orbits to predict the existence of new planets. When a planet's orbit doesn't quite line up with predictions based on everything else we know about the solar system, we need to update our physics (by, say, getting a better theory of gravity) or add more planets to the mix. For example, scientists' inability to accurately describe Mercury's orbit eventually led to Einstein's theory of relativity. And, on the opposite end of the solar system, strange behaviors in the orbit of Uranus led to the discovery of Neptune.
In 2016, astronomers studied a collection of extremely distant objects in the solar system. Called trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), these tiny, icy bodies are left over from the formation of the solar system, and they sit in a lonely, dark orbit beyond that of Neptune (hence the name).
READ MORE: Space.com
