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We might’ve just had our first real look at Planet Nine!Scientists say they’ve spotted a strange object in two old infrared sky surveys, and it could be the strongest sign yet that Planet Nine is real.The idea of Planet Nine first came up in 2016, when astronomers noticed some weird orbital patterns in icy objects way beyond Neptune. They figured something big—maybe 10 times the mass of Earth—might be hiding out there, way past Pluto.Now, a team led by Terry Long Phan from National Tsing Hua University has found a faint object in data from the IRAS (1983) and AKARI (2006) space telescopes. It looks like it moved just enough over time to suggest it’s orbiting the Sun from a whopping 700 AU away (that’s about 65 billion miles!). Based on how bright it is in infrared, it could be even more massive than Neptune, and might take thousands of years to complete a single orbit.It’s not confirmed yet, but this find is exciting because it shows up in both telescope datasets—something that hasn’t happened with other Planet Nine candidates. Next up: astronomers plan to take a closer look using some of the world’s most powerful telescopes, like the Dark Energy Camera in Chile.If it turns out to be real, Planet Nine could completely change how we think about our solar system. It might have formed near the gas giants and got kicked out, or maybe 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 may not be hiding much longer.