This is a Bonus Mystery Cache for those who have completed,
and collected the coordinates from the reference point tags of
GC18EWR "The Solar System Series".
At the beginning of the 20th century, many astronomers speculated
about the existence of a planet beyond Neptune. The discovery of
Neptune itself resulted from calculations used to explain
discrepancies between the calculated and observed orbits of Uranus,
Saturn, and Jupiter.
After the discovery of Neptune, however there still were some
slight discrepancies in those orbits, and also in the orbit of
Neptune itself. These were taken to indicate the existence of yet
another planet orbiting beyond Neptune.
Percival Lowell, who is most well known for his claims of having
observed canals on Mars, called this hypothetical planet "Planet
X". He performed two searches for it without success, although
ironically, at his observatory that year, two faint images of Pluto
were recorded, but were not recognized at the time.
Lowell died in 1916, but the Lowell Observatory continued thier
search, which ended in 1930 with the discovery of Pluto.
Upon its discovery, Pluto was originally thought to be "Planet
X," but its mass was not sufficient to explain Neptune's orbit, so
the search continued.
Not until the 1980s and 1990s, were astronomers able to
calculate that Pluto was indeed too small to have perturbed the
orbits of Uranus and Neptune, which led a search to determine the
real cause of the planets' apparently irregular orbits. They
calculated that any "Planet X" would be at roughly three times the
distance from the sun of Neptune's orbit, highly elliptical, and
far below the ecliptic (a 90-degree angle from the orbit plane of
the other known planets).
Since 1992, hundreds of trans-Neptunian objects have been
discovered. The objects are now recognized as mostly belonging to
the Kuiper Belt: icy bodies orbiting in the plane of the ecliptic
beyond Neptune, which are left over from the formation of the solar
system. Pluto itself is now recognized as being a member of the
Kuiper Belt, and the second largest dwarf planet. Pluto lost its
status as a planet because it failed to meet the IAU (International
Astronomical Union) definition of a planet, which would require it
to have cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.
As of 2006, Pluto is not considered a planet anymore, but rather
a dwarf planet.
To date, there are no discrepancies in the trajectories of any
space probes (Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2) that
can be attributed to the gravitational pull of a large undiscovered
object in the outer solar system.
While many astronomers consider this the end of Lowell's "Planet
X" hypothesis, it does not preclude the existence of objects
potentially as massive as the Earth that could escape detection in
this manner, and which would not cause detectable discrepancies in
the orbits of the outer planets.
The search for "Planet X," however, isn't over yet. The Kuiper
Belt terminates suddenly at a distance of 55 AU from the Sun, and
there is some speculation that this may be caused by the presence
of an object with a mass roughly the size of earths'. In Jaunary
2006, NASA lauched the spacecraft "New Horizons" with a mission to
explore Pluto, the Kupier Belt, and whatever may lie beyond.
Now you too, can travel beyond the edge of our known solar
system, and possibly discover the mysterious "Planet X." Place the
secret numbers discovered from GC18EWR "The Solar System Series" to
discover the coordinates for this cache: N 46' (1)(2).(3)(4)(5) W
112' (6)(7).(8)(9)(10)