How ‘missing’ Planet Nine would change the world for girls

As scientists close in on the solar system’s most elusive planet, an excited Maggie Aderin-Pocock explains how it could explain the mysteries of the universe – and inspire a new generation to boldly go where no woman has gone before

An artist’s impression of how Planet Nine – which is likely to be 10 times the mass of Earth, and at least 400 times further from the Sun – might look (Caltech/R Hurt )

Last month saw an abundance – a positive meteor shower! – of major news stories about space.

February started with some exceptional new images of more than a dozen nearby galaxies, taken by Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope, which reveal the structures and formations in extraordinary detail.

We’ve just witnessed the US’s first lunar landing in 50 years, and the first by a commercial operation.