Mysterious Planet Nine May Be Responsible for the Planets' Weird Orbits

"Earlier this year, astronomers made a shocking announcement that there may be a
ninth planet orbiting in the far reaches of the solar system. Since then,
evidence for Planet Nine's existence has continued to mount, and now, a team of
researchers have published a paper that argues that Planet Nine may be able to
explain why all the planets are crooked.

Astronomers have known for a while that the orbits of all the planets are
slightly askew. All the planets orbit in roughly the same plane, but that plane
is about 6 degrees off from the plane that the Sun rotates in. Due to
conservation of momentum this sort of thing can't happen on its own, so
astronomers have suspected that some sort of object entered the solar system a
long time ago and messed with all the orbits. Previously, the leading contender
was a passing star, but now it looks like Planet Nine is a better fit for this
theory."

See:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/spac...-weird-orbits/

More evidence for Planet 9 suggests it should be visible by several existing
telescopes and astronomers are confident of finding it directly in the next 16
months:

"The hypothetical giant planet 9, which is thought to be about 10 times more
massive than Earth, will be discovered within 16 months or so, astronomer Mike
Brown predicted.

The researchers, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, discovered the planet's
existence through mathematical modeling and computer simulations but have not yet
observed the object directly."

See:

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/10...ggests-it.html

If/When they find this planet, it might make a good test target for Stephen
Hawking's "Starshot" technology.

http://www.space.com/32546-interstel...-starshot.html


Or is there a better approach to sending a probe to something that far away?