Part 3/12:
Following Sedna’s discovery, astronomers cataloged nearly 5,000 TNOs, many exhibiting perplexing behaviors—some crossing Neptune’s path, others moving in retrograde orbits, all pointing toward a common, unseen influence. The prevailing hypothesis: a massive, yet unseen, planetary body was perturbing these objects, effectively acting as a gravitational puppeteer on the edge of our solar system.
Modeling the Invisible
The key to understanding these orbital anomalies came through intricate computer simulations. Brown and Batygin modeled the orbits of 17 TNOs and found that the probability of these strange patterns occurring by chance was a minuscule 0.00006%. Their conclusion was compelling: a substantial, planet-sized object—Planet Nine—was likely responsible.