A new giant planet discovered in our solar system?

The scientists, at least some of them are telling us that there is a giant planet hidden in the “Ort Cloud” which lies at the edge of teh universe.  Here is the summary of the story from the National Post:

Two University of Louisiana astronomers believe that an undetected planet may exist at the edge of our solar system, London’s Independent reports.

Not just any planet, mind you, but one that is up to four times the size of Jupiter, our reigning size champion. (If you imagine the Earth as a golf ball, then Jupiter is about the size of a basketball.)

That’s a bit like one day noticing that there is a mega-mansion at the far end of your street. How did you never see that before?

The thing is, no one has seen this new planet. Right now Tyche — as it has been named — is only a theory.

Despite it so far only existing in their minds, astronomers John Matese and Dan Whitmire have a pretty good description of Tyche:

Tyche will almost certainly be made up mostly of hydrogen and helium and will probably have an atmosphere much like Jupiter’s, with colorful spots and bands and clouds, Professor Whitmire said. “You’d also expect it to have moons. All the outer planets have them,” he added.

The astronomers came up with the hidden planet idea in order to explain why some comets enter our inner solar system from “the wrong direction” according to galactic tide theory, the Independent reports. Gravity from a giant planet can alter the course of comets that get close.

There has been quite a buzz of excitement on the Internet over this possible new neighbour, but don’t send out the welcome wagon just yet, as Discover Magazine‘s Bad Astronomy blog warns:

The article in The Independent talks about this, saying:

But scientists now believe the proof of its existence has already been gathered by a Nasa space telescope, Wise, and is just waiting to be analysed.

The first tranche of data is to be released in April, and astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette think it will reveal Tyche within two years. “If it does, John and I will be doing cartwheels,” Professor Whitmire said. “And that’s not easy at our age.”

Note that first line: it makes it seem as if the proof of the planet is already in the data. We just need to find it!

But that’s not really the case. This planet may not exist at all. It might, and I’d love for that to be true. But at the moment we just have interesting but inconclusive evidence supporting the idea of a large planet in the deep dark recesses of the solar system. That’s a long way from proof.

So what do you think?