Somewhere beyond Pluto are two mysterious planets that are orbiting the sun, and are likely not just spatial bodies drifting through space.
According to Discovery News, authors of a study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society identified the two planets in a region of space sitting near the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt.
Study co-author Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, scientist at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), and his team were observing distant bodies and how a large star could have a gravitational affect from so far away.
"If it is confirmed, our results may be truly revolutionary for astronomy," de la Fuente Marcos said in a statement, according to Space.com.
The idea of a "Planet X," an extreme trans-Neptunian object (ETNO) is not new, as two astronomers detailed their own observations of one in March 2014. But the new study points to a Planet X and a Planet Y, while observing 13 ETNOs in total.
"This excess of objects with unexpected orbital parameters makes us believe that some invisible forces are altering the distribution of the orbital elements of the ETNO and we consider that the most probable explanation is that other unknown planets exist beyond Neptune and Pluto," de la Fuente Marcos said in a press release. "The exact number is uncertain, given that the data that we have is limited, but our calculations suggest that there are at least two planets, and probably more, within the confines of our solar system."
Even though these ETNOs would expectedly be more massive than Earth, they are too far away to observe with even with the most current technology.
