We might’ve just gotten our first real glimpse of Planet Nine in Our Solar System!
The idea of Planet Nine first surfaced in 2016 when astronomers noticed strange orbital patterns in icy bodies far beyond Neptune. They suspected something massive maybe 10 times Earth’s mass lurking way out past Pluto.
Now, a team led by Terry Long Phan at National Tsing Hua University has found a faint object in data from the IRAS (1983) and AKARI (2006) space telescopes. The object seems to have shifted just enough between the two datasets to suggest it’s orbiting the Sun at a staggering distance of around 700 AU (that’s about 65 billion miles!). Judging by its infrared brightness, it could be even bigger than Neptune and might take thousands of years to complete one orbit.
While it’s not confirmed yet, this discovery is exciting because the object appears in both telescope datasets, something no other Planet Nine candidates have managed. Next, astronomers plan to take a closer look using some of the most powerful telescopes on Earth, like Chile’s Dark Energy Camera.
If this object is truly Planet Nine, it could change everything we know about our solar system. Maybe it formed near the gas giants and got kicked out, or perhaps it was captured from another star system. Either way, with new observatories like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope coming online soon, Planet Nine might not stay hidden for much longer.
Meanwhile On World Refugee Day, in San Diego,
one of the most heavily targeted ICE theaters of operation, a quiet act of human defiance broke the spell. At the direction of Pope Leo XIV, who has become increasingly outspoken in condemning the Trump regime’s brutal crackdown on migrants, Bishop Michael Pham, himself once a Vietnamese refugee, led a coalition of priests and clergy into the federal courthouse where ICE agents had routinely stalked migrants.
These agents were notorious for hiding behind pillars and bathrooms, seizing people after court hearings, often in front of terrified families. But on that day, the clergy stood silently beside migrant families called to appear. There was no chanting, no slogans, no violence, just presence. The ICE agents, who had been lurking in corners and waiting outside bathrooms, retreated. No one was detained, no one was tackled. The boot prints on the walls remained, but the agents vanished. A priest described it like Moses parting the Red Sea. The sheer power of moral witness.
This is what authoritarianism fears most: not violence, but visibility.
The Trump regime’s use of force depends on shadows. It relies on secrecy, masked agents, and spectacle unchallenged. Its power thrives when it controls the frame. But when unarmed clergy walk into the shot, the mask slips. The entire apparatus, designed to project overwhelming power, reveals itself as fragile, dependent on intimidation and concealment.
Every authoritarian system understands it must control not only action but narrative. For this reason, Trump dispatches Vance to Los Angeles with handpicked cameras. That is why ICE agents wear masks while pummeling migrants in parking lots. That is why the regime depends on a constant supply of images portraying blue cities as war zones requiring federal occupation.
But moral witness is a different kind of theater, one that does not rely on coercion. The clergy’s silent presence dismantled the ICE spectacle without a single confrontation. Their refusal to participate in the regime’s production turned the scene into something else entirely: an exposure.
The question now is whether more Americans will become witnesses. Not merely spectators. Witnesses.
Authoritarianism is always, ultimately, theater. Its greatest weakness is the presence of those who refuse to play their assigned roles. Who stand, quietly, unarmed, in the middle of the stage and refuse to flinch.
Lastly, Did you know that......
A Filipino student may have found a way to turn food waste and ultraviolet light into clean energy even on cloudy days. Carvey Ehren Maigue, an engineering student at Mapúa University, created a material called AuREUS that uses particles from discarded fruits and vegetables to absorb UV light and convert it into electricity.
Unlike traditional solar panels that need direct sunlight, AuREUS can generate power from ultraviolet rays available even when it’s overcast or in shaded urban areas. The system guides this light to solar cells at the edges of the panel, making it ideal for windows, walls, or other surfaces in cities.
For this innovation, Carvey won the 2020 James Dyson Sustainability Award. His invention not only taps into a new way to harvest energy, but also repurposes food waste bringing science and sustainability together in a smart, meaningful way.
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