Simulation Suggests There May Have Been a Fifth Gas Giant in Our Solar System

The existence of this new planet, who some of Nesvorny's colleagues are calling Hades, is supported by the results of 6,000 computer simulations. Previous simulations only included Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in the outer solar system. Nevertheless these new simulations as well included models with five planets, testing different starting position scenarios. In 90 percent of the four planet models, the simulations ended with only three planets left in the outer system. Yet in half of the five planet simulations, four planets in very similar positions to our current solar system resulted. The results with the most similar positions started with a fifth planet between Saturn and Uranus, and ended with this planet cast out afterwards an encounter with Jupiter.

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