A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University has found evidence that the solar system once had a ninth planet similar to Earth. Scientists believe that its orbit was between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus.
Researchers have developed several thousand models of the evolution of the solar system. They paid special attention to the interaction of some planets and found that during its formation, Jupiter could make three revolutions around the Sun every two orbits of Saturn.
According to scientists, this suggests that there was another cosmic body in the solar system, similar in many parameters to the Earth.
Astrophysicist – head of the research group Matt Clement believes that the modeling helped researchers look into the past and find out that the position of Uranus and Neptune has changed due to the gravitational influence of the planet located between them and the Kuiper belt. Moreover, this mysterious planet has inexplicably disappeared from the solar system.
Scientists note that Pluto is considered the largest object in the Kuiper belt, but its size is not as large as the missing mysterious planet.
The researchers are confident that modeling the formation of the solar system will help them discover other celestial bodies on which life could exist.