Researchers at the California Institute of Technology announced Wednesday that they have discovered "new evidence" of a ninth planet located in the outer reaches of our solar system.

Konstantin Batygin and Mike Browndetected circumstantial evidence for the object, which they are tentatively calling Planet Nine, utilizing "mathematical modeling and computer simulations" and published their findings in the . The astronomers did not yet have observational evidence of Planet Nine, but outlined a thoroughargument for its existence based on the gravitational effects of six previously known objects and dwarf planets that orbit beyond Neptune, Science magazine reports. The scientists found that a planet with mass 10 times of the Earth would need to be present for the objects toline up in such a configuration.

"This would be a real ninth planet," Brown said in a announcing the discovery. "There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third. It's a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that's still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting."

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The presence of the planet was first theorized by astronomer Chad Trujillo and his colleague Scott Shepherd who observed that outer objects in the Kuiper Belt shared a common "orbital feature."

Taking in mind Trujillo and Sherpherd's previous findings, Batygin and Brown began conducting simulations of the potential planet, and found that the observed orbits of thedistant Kuiper Belt objects corresponded with where Planet Nine would be configured.

The next step for confirmation is for astronomers to make a sighting using the W. M. Keck Observatory and the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii.

“Until there’s a direct detection, it’s a hypothesis — even a potentially very good hypothesis,” Brown told Science magazine.

Brown's previous work contributed to Pluto losing its status as the solar system's ninth planet in 2006. Because of his research, the International Astronomical Union decided to categorize it as a"dwarf planet."

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