AI-imagined view of Planet X, a dim blue ice giant with faint rings, far from a distant star-like Sun
AI-imagined artwork

Planet X

A hidden giant that may circle the Sun far beyond Neptune. No one has seen it yet, so this is how an AI imagines it.

See it on the live map

At a glance

Estimated mass ~5–6 Earths
Average distance 400–800 AU from the Sun
One orbit takes 10,000–20,000 years
Surface temperature ~−230 °C (about 40 K)
Sunlight it receives ~1/250,000 of what Earth gets
Status Not yet found still hypothetical
AI-imagined close-up of Planet X with banded blue clouds, a dark storm and thin rings
An AI portrait: a cold ice giant wrapped in methane clouds.

What might it look like?

If Planet X is real, it is probably a smaller cousin of Uranus and Neptune: a ball of rock and ice wrapped in a thick hydrogen and helium atmosphere. Traces of methane would absorb red light, giving it a deep blue-teal colour.

So far from the Sun, daylight there would be dimmer than a full moon on Earth. The Sun would look like little more than an unusually bright star.

These pictures are imagined by AI. They are artistic guesses, not real photos.

Why astronomers think it exists

In 2016, astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown proposed Planet Nine to explain some strange patterns at the edge of the Solar System.

01

Clustered orbits

Several of the most distant icy bodies, such as Sedna, have long oval orbits that all point in roughly the same direction. By chance alone, that would be very unlikely.

02

Tilted paths

Some far-off objects travel on orbits tilted steeply, or even backwards, compared to the planets. A massive unseen planet could tug them into those angles over millions of years.

03

A predicted hiding place

Computer models suggest it spends most of its time near the far end of its orbit, so faint that only the biggest telescopes, such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, have a chance of spotting it.

AI-imagined view from an icy moon, with Planet X filling the sky above frozen ridges
Imagined from one of its possible icy moons: the giant planet hangs over a frozen landscape.

Find it among the planets

Turn on "Planet Nine" on the live solar system map to see where it might be right now.

Open the live map