Scientists have predicted the solar system’s ninth planet. Which of these names has been proposed for it?

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have determined that a massive planet is responsible for quirky orbits in the Kuiper Belt. Astronomers are searching for the object. Temporarily referred to as Planet Nine, this theoretical trans-Neptunian object will be named by whoever first proves it exists.

The Kuiper Belt is estimated to contain more than a trillion comets, some of dwarf planets like Pluto, and many rocks. It surrounds the solar system beyond Neptune. In 2014, two astronomers reported in “Nature” that 13 objects in the outer Belt move in inexplicable orbits.

Research of the anomaly turned up a dwarf planet in 2014. Designated “2012 VP,” It is informally called “VP” or “Biden” for Vice President Joe Biden.

Using mathematical models and computer simulations, two astronomers at Caltech realized that the orbit-changer can only be a planet 10 times as massive as Earth and 5,000 times bigger than Pluto, taking 10 to 20 thousand years to orbit the sun, at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles.

Discoverers of the proposed “super-Earth,” Konstantin Batygin and Michael E. Brown, referred to it as the “perturber” in their original paper, published on January 20, 2016, in “Astronomical Journal.” Informally, they call it “Phattie” among themselves, and have referred to it as “Jehosephat” and “George.”

No name has formally, or even seriously, been proposed, and no actual photos of the planet are available. Not yet, anyway.