On November 28, 2022, I photographed Konstantin Batygin at Caltech, first at the Athenaeum, then in his office at South Mudd. He arrived in a black shirt, torn jeans, and a biker jacket. Some physicists dress like rock stars; Konstantin is one. He’s also the lead singer and guitarist for the band The Seventh Season. It was clear from the moment he stepped into the room that his identity as a scientist and musician weren’t separate things but different manifestations of the same creative force.

His blackboard was a chaotic, beautiful mess, equations scrawled in every direction, the remnants of deep gravitational musings. As he spoke about his work on Planet Nine, the elusive theoretical planet lurking at the edges of our solar system, he casually plucked at the strings of his bass guitar. The interplay was effortless, as if physics and music shared a common rhythm only he could hear.

Batygin’s mind moves in unexpected ways, unafraid of the speculative and the audacious. Alongside his collaborator Mike Brown, he has built a compelling case for the existence of Planet Nine, an unseen world whose presence is inferred by the gravitational tugs it exerts on the Kuiper Belt’s most distant objects. Unlike previous claims of hidden planets, this one rests on the sturdy foundations of orbital mechanics and statistical evidence, making it one of the most tantalizing mysteries in planetary science.

As we talked, he mentioned that, from time to time, a museum will come and pack up his blackboard, preserving its contents as if it were an artifact from a lost civilization. When that happens, he simply starts fresh, chalk in hand, equations unfolding once again in their swirling, elegant logic. It is a reminder that science, like music, is an evolving composition, an unfinished symphony of discovery.