Not sure who sourced this article, but it appears to be from the LATimes:
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-new-oort-cloud-dwarf-planet-20140326,0,5125625.story
This in from PMSNBC:
An icy, unknown world might lurk in the distant reaches of our solar
system beyond the orbit of Pluto, according to a new computer model.
The
hidden world — thought to be much bigger than Pluto based on the model —
could explain unusual features of the Kuiper Belt, a region of space
beyond Neptune littered with icy and rocky bodies. Its existence would
satisfy the long-held hopes and hypotheses for a "Planet X" envisioned
by scientists and sci-fi buffs alike.
"Although the search for a
distant planet in the solar system is old, it is far from over," said
study team member Patryk Lykawka of Kobe University in Japan.
The
model, created by Lykawka and Kobe University colleague Tadashi Mukai,
is detailed in a recent issue of Astrophysical Journal.
If the
new world is confirmed, it would not be technically a planet. Under a
controversial new definition adopted by the International Astronomical
Union last week, it would instead be the largest known "plutoid."
The
Kuiper Belt contains many peculiar features that can't be explained by
standard solar system models. One is the highly irregular orbits of some
of the belt's members.
The most famous is Sedna, a rocky object
located three times farther from the sun than Pluto. Sedna takes 12,000
years to travel once around the sun, and its orbit ranges from 80 to 100
astronomical units. One AU is equal to the distance between the Earth
and the Sun.
According to the model, Sedna and other Kuiper Belt
oddities could be explained by a world 30 to 70 percent as massive as
Earth orbiting between 100 AU and 200 AU from the sun.
At that
distance, any water on the world's surface would be completely frozen.
However, it might support a subsurface ocean like those suspected to
exist on the moons Titan and Enceladus, said Mark Sykes, director of the
Planetary Science Institute in Arizona.
"The interesting thing
for me is the suggestion of the kinds of very interesting objects that
may yet await discovery in the outer solar system," said Sykes, who was
not involved in the study. "We are still scratching the edges of that
region of the solar system, and I expect many surprises await us with
the future deeper surveys."
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