User submission

Scientists Say There Could Be A 9th Planet In Our Solar System And Tumblr Freaks Out

Tumblr is definitely a Cornucopia full of the Internet’s most diverse content. You can find funny memes there for when you need a laugh, stunning shots for when you need to look at something aesthetically pleasing, and even pick up a political fight if you feel like it. And while most would say that the majority of the big T’s content is nonsensical and shouldn’t really be taken seriously, sometimes people on the social media site find themselves discussing quite interesting things.One blog that generates various interesting facts pointed out that scientists believe there is another undiscovered planet in our Solar system and Tumblr users, naturally, didn’t take that calmly.

Scientists believe that there is an undiscovered planet on the outskirts of the solar system

Image credits: nagualdesign

Scientists Say There Could Be A 9th Planet In Our Solar System And Tumblr Freaks Out

What Tumblr peeps were freaking about is, in fact, Planet Nine, a hypothetical Solar System planet that some scientists believe exists beyond Neptune. While many hypothetical planets have been proposed before, they have also been disproved, however, Planet Nine certainly has substantial evidence to be probable.

Scientists Say There Could Be A 9th Planet In Our Solar System And Tumblr Freaks Out

Image credits: space.com

The biggest reason why many scientists speculate there must be a planet beyond Neptune is because there are some bodies in the Kuiper belt that have very unusual orbits. So unusual that scientists can’t yet explain why they are that way. That’s why one of the proposals that would put some sense to the unusual orbits is another planet large enough to affect these orbits and give them such unusual routes.

Scientists Say There Could Be A 9th Planet In Our Solar System And Tumblr Freaks Out

Image credits: space.com

The scientists speculate that Planet Nine could be roughly 10 or 15 times bigger than the Earth. Why would such a big plan go unnoticed for a long time? Well, if Planet Nine actually exists, its orbit is absolutely massive and stretches out further from the Sun than any other Solar planet. It also probably has a stretched out, elliptical orbit which means that it can travel very far away from the sun and it would take many years for it to return close to the sun where we could see it.

Scientists Say There Could Be A 9th Planet In Our Solar System And Tumblr Freaks Out

Image credits: space.com

Despite that, thousands of volunteers together with scientists teamed up to scan through thousands of data images to look for a sign of it. And those who believe in Planet Nine’s existence think that we could find it within the next 15 years.
In the “Backyard Worlds: Planet 9” project, an initiative that seeks people from all over the world to look through images, there are currently 53,337 volunteers scanning through the pics looking for this enigmatic planet. Oh, and if trying to locate a mysterious dark planet is up your alley, you can join them!

Of course, Tumblr responded to the search of Planet Nine with memes

Scientists Say There Could Be A 9th Planet In Our Solar System And Tumblr Freaks Out

Image credits: younger-chuckles

Scientists Say There Could Be A 9th Planet In Our Solar System And Tumblr Freaks Out

Image credits: mornington-the-crescent

Scientists Say There Could Be A 9th Planet In Our Solar System And Tumblr Freaks Out

Image credits: klubbhead

Scientists Say There Could Be A 9th Planet In Our Solar System And Tumblr Freaks Out

You can watch a lengthy, but entertaining video about Planet Nine here

10Kviews

As a writer and image editor for Bored Panda, Giedrė crafts posts on many different topics to push them to their potential. She's also glad that her Bachelor’s degree in English Philology didn’t go to waste (although collecting dust in the attic could also be considered an achievement of aesthetic value!) Giedrė is an avid fan of cats, photography, and mysteries, and a keen observer of the Internet culture which is what she is most excited to write about. Since she's embarked on her journalistic endeavor, Giedrė has over 600 articles under her belt and hopes for twice as much (fingers crossed - half of them are about cats).

Read less »

What do you think ?

POST

Cindy Snow 5 years ago

DEAR NASA PLUTO WAS BIG ENOUGH FOR YOUR MOM. BYE.

11points

Julie 5 years ago

*10th planet Viva la Pluto

10points

Parmeisan 5 years ago

I mean, I get what this article is *actually* about and it's kind of cool. But this is a really dumb title: "Scientists Say There Could Be A Planet 10 Times Bigger Than Earth In Our Solar System". Uh, yeah. Duh. Jupiter for example can fit 1,300 Earths inside it. So it's a heck of a lot more than "could be". ;)

6points