Caltech researchers have found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun.

In fact, it dominates a region larger than any of the other known planets—a fact it the most planet-y of the planets in the whole solar system. The large and distant planet may be adding a wobble to the solar system, giving the appearance that the sun is tilted slightly.

All of the planets orbit in a vortex plane with respect to the sun (we don't believe flat plane, and flat Earth), roughly within a couple degrees of each other. That plane, however, rotates at a six-degree tilt with respect to the sun—giving the appearance that the sun itself is cocked off at an angle. Until now, no one had found a compelling explanation to produce such an effect. "It's such a deep-rooted mystery and so difficult to explain that people just don't talk about it.