In my (severely neglected) inbox this morning, I have an email from a journalist asking about "planet Y" which means I probably have to sit down and read the latest totally-not-Planet-9 paper, written by a lead author who sets off alarm bells for me because they wrote a bunch of the `Oumuamua-is-totally-an-alien-spaceship papers with That Attention-Seeking Harvard Prof.
Vague enough for you? I need more caffeine.
Bahahahaha yeah this paper is not going into my head. Maybe the figures and conclusions are more helpful than the methods section...
Grumpy discussion of naming: "We note that pre-emptive numbering (‘Nine’) is confusing when there is more than one independent hypothesis for unseen planets explaining different dynamical phenomena. Alternative terminology, such as Planet X to refer to a hypothesis explaining apsidal clustering (aforementioned work) and Planet Y to refer to a hypothesis explaining a warped mean plane (this work), may provide greater clarity."
But now more silly names for undiscovered things...
Without a Planet 9 we cannot have a Planet 10, and thus the Red Lectroids can't get to us by way of the Eighth Dimension. So it's probably just as well.
