---
title: "Paper: Is There an Earth-like Planet in the Distant Kuiper Belt? (2023)"
id: 62524
type: "post"
slug: "paper-is-there-an-earth-like-planet-in-the-distant-kuiper-belt-2023"
author: "NSE"
published: "2023-10-03T04:00:00+00:00"
modified: "2023-09-12T13:07:26+00:00"
canonical: "https://newspaceeconomy.ca/2023/10/03/paper-is-there-an-earth-like-planet-in-the-distant-kuiper-belt-2023/"
markdown_url: "https://newspaceeconomy.ca/2023/10/03/paper-is-there-an-earth-like-planet-in-the-distant-kuiper-belt-2023.md"
description: "This research paper investigated the possibility of an Earth-like planet in the distant Kuiper Belt, a region of the solar system beyond Neptune. They used…"
language: "en-US"
category:
  - "Earth"
  - "Extraterrestrial Life"
  - "Industry Reports, Papers And E-books"
  - "Solar System"
  - "Space Economy"
post_tag:
  - "Extraterrestrial Intelligence"
  - "Research"
---

# Paper: Is There an Earth-like Planet in the Distant Kuiper Belt? (2023)

![](https://i0.wp.com/newspaceeconomy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/img_5887.jpg?resize=696%2C901&ssl=1)

[Download document](https://newspaceeconomy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/lykawka_2023_aj_166_118.pdf)

## Synopsis

This research paper investigated the possibility of an Earth-like planet in the distant Kuiper Belt, a region of the solar system beyond Neptune. They used N-body computer simulations to study the effects of a hypothetical Kuiper Belt planet (KBP) on the orbital structure of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) beyond ~50 astronomical units (au). The researchers found that an Earth-like planet with a mass of approximately 1.5-3 Earth masses, located on a distant and inclined orbit (semimajor axis between 250-500 au, perihelion around 200 au, and inclination around 30°), could explain three fundamental properties of the distant Kuiper Belt: a prominent population of TNOs with orbits beyond Neptune’s gravitational influence, a significant population of high-inclination objects, and the existence of some extreme objects with peculiar orbits, such as Sedna.

The proposed KBP is also compatible with the existence of identified gigayear-stable TNOs in various Neptunian mean motion resonances. The study predicts the existence of an Earth-like planet and several TNOs on peculiar orbits in the outer solar system, which can serve as observationally testable signatures of the putative planet’s perturbations.