Hasta La Gadget!

Is there a giant planet four times the size of Jupiter hanging out at the edge of our solar system? The consensus from scientists is a definitive “maybe.”  Two researchers at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette believe that there’s a gas giant lurking in our solar system, a theory they base on the strange pattern of comets in the area.

The phantom planet has been nicknamed Tyche, after a Greek goddess, and it’s been the source of some major controversy–which is to say that a lot of fellow scientists aren’t really buying the theories about a giant ninth planet, at least not with the current evidence available.

Over at Discover Magazine, Phil Plait had this to say, 

I read their papers, and thought the data were interesting but unconvincing. The sample size was too small. A bigger study was done, but again the effects weren’t quite enough to rise to the level of breakthrough.

There you have it, a big, fat scientific “maybe.”