Science: New Planet?

Like a man searching for a dropped collar button in the dark, astronomers are searching the southern sky. They know that what they are looking for is there, somewhere: a planet as big as Earth, but some 35 times farther from the sun (well beyond reach of the naked eye). Its existence and gravitational pull are postulated by Mount Wilson Observatory's R.S. Richardson to explain why Halley's comet embarrassed astronomers by showing up three days late in 1910. Search for the new planet may take 25 years (like Pluto), or only 18 months (like Neptune)—both of which were postulated by astronomers...

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