Astronomers say a Neptune-sized planet lurks beyond Pluto
By Eric Hand
Jan. 20, 2016
The solar system appears to have a new ninth planet. Today, two scientists announced evidence that a body nearly the size of Neptune—but as yet unseen—orbits the sun every 15,000 years. During the solar system’s infancy 4.5 billion years ago, they say, the giant planet was knocked out of the planet-forming region near the sun. Slowed down by gas, the planet settled into a distant elliptical orbit, where it still lurks today.
The claim is the strongest yet in the centuries-long search for a “Planet X” beyond Neptune. The quest has been plagued by far-fetched claims and even outright quackery. But the new evidence comes from a pair of respected planetary scientists, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, who prepared for the inevitable skepticism with detailed analyses of the orbits of other distant objects and months of computer simulations. “If you say, ‘We have evidence for Planet X,’ almost any astronomer will say, ‘This again? These guys are clearly crazy.’ I would, too,” Brown says. “Why is this different? This is different because this time we’re right.”
Outside scientists say their calculations stack up and express a mixture of caution and excitement about the result. “I could not imagine a bigger deal if—and of course that’s a boldface ‘if’—if it turns out to be right,” says Gregory Laughlin, a planetary scientist at the University of California (UC), Santa Cruz. “What’s thrilling about it is [the planet] is detectable.”
Batygin and Brown inferred its presence from the peculiar clustering of six previously known objects that orbit beyond Neptune. They say there’s only a 0.007% chance, or about one in 15,000, that the clustering could be a coincidence. Instead, they say, a planet with the mass of 10 Earths has shepherded the six objects into their strange elliptical orbits, tilted out of the plane of the solar system.
more
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/feature-astronomers-say-neptune-sized-planet-lurks-unseen-solar-system
= new reply since forum marked as read
Interesting......
... in addition to this planet they found, there is speculation that there is a brown dwarf. I only wondered if the article touched on that aspect. I guess I even though I'm in a meeting, I should just read the article, since I spent a lot of time explaining myself.
I'm trying to pay attention to this meeting and post at the same time.
My apologies. 
I misread your first post as well 
Having another planet and a brown dwarf star would be super cool!!!
Last edited Fri Jan 22, 2016, 09:41 PM - Edit history (1)
That is, their existence was inferred by using, for example, calculus to determine their mass and orbits, even before we could actually eyeball them directly.
Oh, and a second thought: rouge planets are reddish-colored, right? Not sure about the ROGUE ones, though. 
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