Column: Pluto is dead — but have these scientists discovered a new ninth planet?
In a couple of weeks, Caltech astronomers Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin will be staying up late over six autumn nights, scanning part of the sky via the great Subaru telescope in Hawaii. They’ll be looking for something their data tell them is there, but which they have to see with their own eyes: a newfound ninth planet in the solar system they’re calling Planet Nine. And, how’s this for synchronicity? Brown is the man whose research wound up demoting Pluto, which is actually smaller than Australia, down to a dwarf planet – yes, he killed off Planet Pluto.
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