“once they realized that their confident declarations that there was no Planet X were proven flatly false.”
There is no planet X. That was an erroneous prediction based upon some incorrectly recorded observational data. That’s it. I enjoy listening to coast to coast AM at night sometimes, but there is no planet X.
There have been ridiculous assertions as to the nature, behavior and significance of “Planet X.” But the name refers to simply the existence of a tenth planet. And there is a tenth planet, according to the definition of a planet when they declared there was no tenth planet. It’s named “Eris.” When Eris was found, they kept the news secret until they could change the definition of a planet, then they announced its existence.
I thought Planet X was involved in some kind of conspiracy with Planet Y and Planet Z—the XYZ Affair. But Planets Y and Z turned state’s evidence so Planet X got all the blame.