Astronomical search Memes

Finding three Earth-sized planets 73.5 light-years away? Easy, exciting, publication-worthy. Narrowing down the hypothetical Planet Nine that's supposedly lurking in our own backyard? That's the kind of soul-crushing work that turns bright-eyed astronomers into chain-smoking nihilists. The astronomical equivalent of spending decades searching for your keys when they were in your pocket the whole time... except we still haven't found the keys. And they might not exist. And your pocket might be a mathematical error.