(Reuters) Science-fiction writers have long dreamed about the legendary Planet X, but now scientists have actually discovered it. Astronomers at the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles today announced the discovery of the solar system’s tenth planet.
"This is a tremendously exciting discovery," said Olaf Gustafsen, the observatory’s chief astronomer. "The last time a planet was discovered was in 1930, and even that has been controversial."
Gustafsen refers to the discovery of Pluto, an object so tiny that many have suggested it is not a planet at all but is instead one of the many objects of the solar system’s Kuiper belt.
"There’s no doubt about the new planet," Gustafsen said. "It’s larger than four other planets of the solar system–Pluto, Mercury, Mars, and Venus–making Planet X a rival for earth in size."
The object has been temporarily named called "Planet X" by astronomers because it is the tenth planet discovered, and "X" is Latin for "ten."
Astronomers plan to give it a new name with a mythological origin in the near future. "Personally, I’m rooting for ‘Yuggoth,’" said Gustafsen.
The planet was discovered with the aide of high powered computing equipment being used to identify individual objects within the Kuiper belt.
"The object was so large compared to all the known Kuiper belt objects that we couldn’t believe it," Gustafsen said. "At first we thought it was just a practical joke being played by a colleague typing in phony data on a computer, but it turned out to be real."
Despite its vast distance from the sun, which Gustafsen says is a staggering 98 million miles, scientists have been able to determine a remarkable number of things about Planet X. For example, it has one large moon, it has a nickle-iron core, and it has a rotational period almost identical to the earth, compared to most planets, which have very different rotational periods.
"Surprising as it may seem," Gustafsen says, "rotationally this is a daily planet."
