|
[email protected] (Victor Laking) writes: |
|
>Does anyone have any info on the apparent sightings of Vulcan? |
|
>All that I know is that there were apparently two sightings at |
|
>drastically different times of a small planet that was inside Mercury's |
|
>orbit. Beyond that, I have no other info. |
|
>Does anyone know anything more specific? |
|
>(Yes, this happened LONG before Star Trek and is apparently where they |
|
>got the reference for the "guy with the ears".) |
|
Yes, long before Star Trek. Before Einstein, in fact. |
|
Vulcan as a planet inside Mercury was hypothesized to explain a perturbation |
|
of Mercury's orbit that could not be explained by the known planets. But |
|
Einstein's theory of relativity explained Mercury's motion, and analysis |
|
of Mercury's motion now shows there are _not_ any planets inside its orbit. |
|
-Mike |
|
|
