Planet 9: Scientists Discover A New Ninth Planet, Internet Reacts By Mercilessly Mocking Pluto

So, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have found evidence of a new ninth planet in our solar system. The planet, which they've temporarily named Planet 9, is thought to be ten times the mass of earth and resides about 200 or 300 times further away from the sun than we do, meaning one orbit of the sun would take around 15,000 years.

The scientists, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, haven't actually seen the planet with a telescope but have deduced that it exists by studying dwarf planets and other astral bodies, whose orbits are disrupted by something that appears to be massive, but as yet unseen.

"This would be a real ninth planet," Brown said. "There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third. It's a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that's still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting."

It's though the planet may have been knocked all the way out there about 4.5 billion years ago when the solar system was forming, ejected into its distant orbit by collisions with Jupiter or Saturn.

"Although we were initially quite skeptical that this planet could exist, as we continued to investigate its orbit and what it would mean for the outer solar system, we become increasingly convinced that it is out there," says Batygin. "For the first time in over 150 years, there is solid evidence that the solar system's planetary census is incomplete."

The pair hope to confirm it's existence by sighting it with a large telescope based in Hawaii, and urge other scientists to help with the search.

Thing is, there used to be nine planets until Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet back in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). To make matters worse (for Pluto anyway) work by Mike Brown, the same Mike Brown involved in this new discovery, helped the case to downgrade Pluto nearly a decade ago.

Conspiracy? Of course not, but the internet still had some fun with this potential new planet, from mocking poor Pluto, to what they might name it, to even Mike Brown himself making a joke (his Twitter bio states "Astronomer, planet hunter, Pluto killer."