# Is there really a Planet 9 out there in the Kuiper Belt?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-a-planet-9-out-there-in-the-kuiper-belt/931771>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 29, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-a-planet-9-out-there-in-the-kuiper-belt/931771 "2021-01-29T13:49:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 84

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\
**Post date:** [February 1, 2021, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-a-planet-9-out-there-in-the-kuiper-belt/931771/84 "2021-02-01T15:42:07Z")

</div>

> [@Jasmine](#):
>
> Note to Board: We now have ten planets.

If we’re going to accept Ceres and Pluto, there’s pretty much no way we can stop at just ten planets. In addition to Eris (the discovery of which is pretty much responsible for Pluto’s official de-planetization) there’s also Haumea and Makemake–which would bring us to thirteen–and [possibly also](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_possible_dwarf_planets) Gonggong, Quaoar, Sedna, Orcus, and Salacia, not to mention a bunch of things that (so far) are just strings of letters and numbers (“(307261) 2002 MS4”).

[Like I said](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-was-demoted-2-years-ago-shouldnt-a-new-planet-definition-be-proposed/461128/3) 13 years ago (wow, time flies), I think it would be shiny to have dozens and dozens of planets, but I guess the IAU isn’t likely to put me in charge.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-a-planet-9-out-there-in-the-kuiper-belt/931771)._