Does Planet X really exist? - Daily Mail

In 2015, Caltech astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown announced new research which provided impelling evidence of a giant planet tracing an unusual, elongated orbit in the outer solar system.

The theory goes that a body of this size and mass would explain the clustered paths of some smaller objects in the Kuiper Belt, a distant region of icy debris that extends far beyond the orbit of Neptune.

Breakthrough: In 2015, Caltech astronomers Mike Brown (left) and Konstantin Batygin (right) announced new research which provided impelling evidence of a giant planet tracing an unusual, elongated orbit in the outer solar system

The Oort Cloud is believed to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the sun, planets, and Kuiper Belt Objects containing billions, or trillions of icy pieces of space debris left over from the formation of the solar system.

In 2021, the existence of Planet X was dealt a blow when a team led by physicist Kevin Napier, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, examined the orbits of 'extreme' trans-Neptunian objects.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory (VRO) in Chile, which came online in 2021, began a ten-year survey of the sky last year which is expected to detect thousands more Kuiper belt objects.