back to article Planet 9 a captured alien, astroboffins suggest

Astroboffins have boldly suggested that the hypothetical trans-Neptunian Planet 9 is in fact an exoplanet captured by our young Sun from another star. That's according to astronomers from Sweden's Lund University and the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux, who questioned the plausibility of a planet some ten times the …

  1. TRT Silver badge

    Planet 9?

    Mondas would be a far better designation.

    1. Swarthy

      Re: Planet 9?

      At 90 degrees to the ecliptic, it should be named Gateway.

  2. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

    MikeBrownFacts

    Mike Brown an create a planet by merely saying, "It exists".

    1. David Nash Silver badge

      Re: MikeBrownFacts

      Well he did kill Pluto so it's only fair to give something in return!

  3. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    So, in other words, a job for "INS, divison six"?

  4. James Cullingham

    So, it's apparently

    Planet 9 from Outer Space

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So - Planet 9 from outer space?

    / Coat

  6. Gotno iShit Wantno iShit

    90 degrees to the plane of the eliptic..... Hmmmm......

    When the astroboffins track it down could they please check for alien spacecraft in 1, 3 & 5 person sizes?

    1. Fr. Ted Crilly Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Have a thumb up for the Gateway reference sir!

      If you could just spare me an armoured 3 for my personal use...

  7. Stevie

    Bah!

    Since we cannot say for certain that this object ever cleared its own orbit of debris whenit was in its original solar system, we can never call it a planet.

    Were some so-called astronomers not awake during the Pluto renaming debacle?

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Bah!

      "Were some so-called astronomers not awake during the Pluto renaming debacle?"

      I don't know about so-called astronomers but one of the astronomers who co-authored the paper on which this article is based certainly was. He was involved in it.

  8. VinceH

    Tsk. They still don't understand - Neptune is the exoplanet!

    1. IT Poser

      Citation needed

      We now have two references on a semi-reputable industry* website. Perhaps it is time to update wikipedia.

      * Despite the changes over the last year I would hope the hacks here still find the idea of being reputable to be repugnant. Also as space is actually everywhere one can say that ever industry is, in fact, a space industry.

      1. VinceH

        Re: Citation needed

        I keep threatening to dig out that old GCSE coursework, tidy it up (remove lots of bloat, and all the Drake stuff, leaving just the Titius-Bode element), and turn it into a post on my bloggy site.

        To that end, I think I have the floppy disc with it on - I now have a 3.5" ADFS format floppy in the drawer of this desk with a label on it that says "BODE'S LAW" so I'm guessing that's the one. The next task is to try to resurrect one of my old Acorn computers that will be capable of reading it.

        (I had hoped it would have turned up on an old hard disc - but no, it's that long ago that I didn't have a hard disc in my computer(s)).

    2. Mark 85

      That's according to astronomers from Sweden's Lund University and the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux, who questioned the plausibility of a planet some ten times the mass of Earth forming at such a great distance from the solar system's centre.

      And then there's this ^^^ which means that Jupiter and Saturn are exoplanets also?

  9. Chozo

    It could be...

    a ball from a game of interstellar billiards

    our solar system's construction shack

    remains of large space station partially destroyed a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

    the dinosaur's colony ship

    massive styrofoam decoy warship to scare invading aliens [Golden the Ship Was--Oh! Oh! Oh!" (1959)]

    an enigmatic monolith

    collapsed star

    or simply where all the lost ball point pens go.

    1. CYMinCA

      Re: It could be...

      No it's socks, the pens constitute one of its moons

    2. Richard Boyce

      Re: It could be...

      They have but slept.

  10. dkells

    Our sun is a kidnapper

    How could she?? She must have kidnapped Alpha Centauri A's child I suspect....

    I hope she rots in hell! Wait a minute...I guess the sun is kind of like hell. This could be scientific proof of God.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    All wrong

    Must be either a mini-black hole or the Death Star ver 3

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