NASA's New Horizons probe is taking now on another mission, searching in the Kuiper Belt for the mysterious "Planet X". Until now it seems that Planet X has only been the stuff of legends. But the situation dramatically changes, since some scientists started to believe too that this mysterious planet might really exist somewhere in the Kuiper Belt, a field of debris located at the outer edge of the solar system.
Conspiracy theorists have a reason to rejoice now, as their claims are finally taken seriously. To probe the hypothesis that has recently entered the mainstream science, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is now being sent to investigate a mysterious object in the Kuiper Belt. For now, from telescope images received, the object appears to be a large icy rock.
The Kuiper Belt counts so far 1,500 different discovered objects. Most of them are quite small, many not qualifying for planet status as all, other just qualifying for dwarf planet status. However, some scientists theorize that a large planet that might be out in the Kuiper Belt.
Considering some unexplained effects produced on Earth and throughout the solar system, this planet could be potentially bigger than Earth, and even bigger than some of the gas giant planets such as Neptune.
It's not only conspiracy theorists who are proposing the existence of Planet X anymore. A report appeared in the prestigious journal Nature in 2014 is compiling evidence from the Hawaii's Gemini Observatory indicating that there could be a "perturber" out there at the edges of the solar system, a large gravitationally disturbing object.
The first who proposed the existence of the Planet X was Percival Lowell, a wealthy Bostonian, founder of an observatory in Arizona. He was looking to explain Uranus's unique orbit, believed by him to been affected by a large object located at the edges of our solar system.
Ever since, the mysterious potential planet has become an astronomers' "holy grail". Taking into consideration the fact that the planet doesn't produce its own light and its potential distance from the Earth, searching for Planet X it's not an easy task. However, some gravitational signatures suggest, that the planet might be real.
The mainstream astronomic community mainly agrees that Planet X does not exist. However, recently the concept of Planet X has been revived by a minority of astronomers trying to explain anomalies observed in the outer Solar System.
In popular culture, Planet X is often associated with mysterious phenomena like crop circles and UFO sightings. Conspiracy theorists believe that NASA has covered its existence. In their circles, Planet X is also known in the community as Nibiru.
The most popular fringe theory foresees a cataclysmic collision between Earth and Nibiru in the early 21st Century. Aliens from Zeta Reticuli star system have supposedly warned earthlings about the coming disaster. However, according to NASA, there are is no such danger for the Earth and the space agency has always denied the claims.
