For several years, scientists have speculated that a mysterious planet, dubbed Planet Nine, lies beyond Pluto.

While the planet is yet to be found, new research suggests that the possible world could spell disaster for our solar system.

Researchers say that when the sun dies, Planet Nine could cause the elimination of at least one of the planets.

Scroll down for video

New research suggests that Planet Nine could spell disaster for our solar system. Researchers say that when the sun dies, Planet Nine (artist's impression pictured) could cause the elimination of at least one of the planets

WHAT IS PLANET NINE? A study published earlier this years revealed a peculiar clustering of six objects orbiting beyond Neptune. It found there is only a 0.007% chance, or about one in 15,000, that the clustering could be a coincidence. Instead, they say, a planet with the mass of between 10 and 15 Earths has shepherded the six objects into their strange elliptical orbits, tilted out of the plane of the solar system. The findings seem to back up claims made in the 1960s that there might be an undiscovered planet - then called Planet X - on the outskirts of the solar system. The mysterious world has now been named Planet Nine in a nod by Professor Mike Brown, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology, to the declassification of Pluto as the ninth planet in the solar system. Pluto is know known as a dwarf planet, a lesser category of planets that fail to meet all the criteria needed to be classed as a full planet. Advertisement

The research comes from the University of Warwick, where scientists have suggested that when the sun dies, Planet Nine could hurl one or more planet out of the solar system, in a sort of 'pinball' effect.

The sun is expected to start to die in around seven billion years, at which point it will blow away half of its own mass and swell up, swallowing the Earth in the process.

It will then fade away into an ember, known as a white dwarf.

This mass ejection will push Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune out to what was previously assumed to be a safe distance.

But researchers now suggest that the existence of Planet Nine could change this theory.

Their new theory suggests that Planet Nine, which is thought to lie in the outer solar system, might not be pushed out in the same way.

Instead, it might be thrust inwards into a 'death dance' with the four giant planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

The most likely result of this will be an ejection of one or more of the planets from the solar system.

Dr Dimitri Veras, who led the study, said: 'The existence of a distant massive planet could fundamentally change the fate of the solar system.

'Uranus and Neptune in particular may no longer be safe from the death throes of the Sun.'

Mapping the numerous different positions where Planet Nine (artist's impression) is thought to lie, the researchers showed that the further away and more massive the planet is, the higher the chance that it will wreak havoc on the solar system

The researchers used a unique code that can simulate the death of planetary systems.

Mapping the numerous different positions where Planet Nine is thought to lie, the researchers showed that the further away and more massive the planet is, the higher the chance that it will wreak havoc on the solar system.

Dr Veras added: 'The fate of the solar system would depend on the mass and orbital properties of Planet Nine, if it exists.'

The researchers hope that their study will aid understanding of planetary architectures in different solar systems.