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A vulcanoid is an asteroid in a stable orbit with a semi-major axis less than that of Mercury (i.e. 0.387 AU). [7] [17] This does not include objects like sungrazing comets, which, although they have perihelia inside the orbit of Mercury, have far greater semi-major axes. [7]
Vulcan / ˈ v ʌ l k ən / [2] was a proposed planet that some pre-20th century astronomers thought existed in an orbit between Mercury and the Sun. Speculation about, and even purported observations of, intermercurial bodies or planets date back to the beginning of the 17th century.
Schematic diagram of the orbits of the fictional planets Vulcan, Counter-Earth, and Phaëton in relation to the five innermost planets of the Solar System.. Fictional planets of the Solar System have been depicted since the 1700s—often but not always corresponding to hypothetical planets that have at one point or another been seriously proposed by real-world astronomers, though commonly ...
"Other than Mercury, asteroid 2007 EB26 with a semi-major axis of 0.55 AU (82,000,000 km; 51,000,000 mi) has the smallest known semi-major axis of any known object orbiting the Sun." - stated in the first paragraph...yet the link to the wiki page about asteroid 2007 EB26 says it has the second smallest known semi-major axis.
This hypothesis is now considered unlikely, since the asteroid belt has far too little mass to have resulted from the explosion of a large planet. In 2018, a study from researchers at the University of Florida found the asteroid belt was created from the fragments of at least five or six ancient planetary-sized objects instead of a single ...
The 2000 recovery of 719 Albert, which had been lost for nearly 89 years, eliminated the last numbered lost asteroid. [9] Only after a number is assigned is the minor planet eligible to receive a name. Usually the discoverer has up to 10 years to pick a name; many minor planets now remain unnamed.
Comparison of the planets and debris belts in the Solar System to the Epsilon Eridani system. At the top is the asteroid belt and the inner planets of the Solar System. Second from the top is the proposed inner asteroid belt and planet b of Epsilon Eridani. The lower illustrations show the corresponding features for the two stars' outer systems.
[24] [25] The 'Romulus' suggestion was discounted, as there is already an asteroid moon of that name, [26] but Vulcan won the poll after Shatner tweeted about it, with Cerberus (the dog that guards Pluto's underworld) coming second and Styx (the goddess of the river of the same name in the underworld) coming third.