New Horizon (Photo : Reuters/NASA handouts)
NASA announced that New Horizons probe's new mission is nothing less that searching for the mysterious Planet X that has been for long the favorite topic of conspiracy theorists.
The American Space Agency is finally joining the ranks of believers in the existence of a big object located somewhere at the edge of the solar system and perturbing the gravitational field across space.
According to the Washington Post, the American Space Agency is sending its spacecraft to search for Planet X in the Kuiper Belt. Until now, Planet X used to be more into the realm of legends. However, the answer to the question of its existence dramatically changed since scientists found data that proved that a massive object is perturbing the gravitational field in our solar system.
Scientists now believe that it is possible that somewhere in the Kuiper Belt. In the field of debris located at the outer edge of the solar system a large planetary object might be floating through space still hidden to astronomers' knowledge.
To probe the hypothesis that has slowly made its way into the mainstream science, NASA is sending its New Horizons spacecraft to explore a mysterious object in the Kuiper Belt. The only images of the object received for now show a dwarf planet that appears like a large icy rock.
The Kuiper Belt is composed of around 1,500 different discovered objects discovered so far. Many of them are small asteroids not qualifying for planet status. There are just a few bigger objects that are considered by astronomers as being dwarf planets.
Some scientists come with the hypothesis that a large planet might be hidden in the Kuiper Belt. Taking into consideration some unexplained gravitational anomalies observed by researchers this planet could be potentially bigger than Earth or even bigger than Neptune.
According to The Guardian, citing a report published in 2014 in the prestigious journal Nature, astronomers recently received some compiling evidence in favor of the Planet X hypothesis. The Hawaii's Gemini Observatory has indicated that a large gravitationally disturbing object might be located at the edges of the solar system.
Percival Lowell, a wealthy Bostonian and founder of an observatory in Arizona, was the first to come with the hypothesis of Planet X existence. When the astronomer was trying to explain Uranus's eccentric orbit, he proposed the existence of a large object located at the edges of our solar system affecting Uranus's trajectory.
Planet X, also known as Nibiru, is often associated in popular culture with mysterious phenomena like aliens, UFOs and crop circles Conspiracy theorists even accuse NASA for covered its existence. Conspiracy theorists have their reason to rejoice, since it seems NASA finally joined the rank of believers.
