Definitions:
- Vulcanoid: What astronomers have renamed the supposed planetoids between Mercury's orbit and the Sun. A planetoid is another term for an asteroid. They have renamed them Vulcanoids because they previously thought that there was only one planet between Mercury and the Sun, which they named Vulcan for its temperature.
- Intra-Mercurial: Inside Mercury's orbit; between the Sun and Mercury.
Summary:
- Many astronomers have been searching for small planetoids between the orbit of Mercury and the Sun for over 400 years.
- Everywhere we look in our solar system, there is something floating or zipping by, such as planets, asteroids, comets, or dust.
- There seems to be an empty void between the orbit of Mercury and the Sun measuring millions of miles across, but many astronomers believe it is an allusion, including Alan Sterns, who is until recently the associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
- Images of Mercury show it to have been continuously pummeled by small objects, implying that there once was and still could be small bodies there.
- In 1611, German astronomer Christoph Scheiner spotted a small object sillhouetted against the night sky, but it later was found to be a sunspot. Many other mistaken observations came after.
- In the 1850s, the French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier's detailed calculations showed that the orbit of Mercury slowly and steadily drifted, appearing to be affected by the gravitational pull of another body even closer to the sun. Astronomers name this new "planet" Vulcan after this huge boost in the search for an intra-Mercurial planet.
- As technology advanced, telescopes got bigger and had a better ability to spot small objects. Nothing was spotted, and the belief that Vulcan existed weakened.
- Eistein corrected Verrier's theory in 1915, when he formed the theory of relativity, showing that relativity itself explained the slow change of Mercury's orbit.
- Astronomers still did not give up hope and instead came up with the theory that there could be small "vulcanettes" or vulcanoids (as they named them) between Mercury and the Sun, just as the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter was unknowingly found.
- Space probes out of Earth's orbit have the task of finding vulcanoids, and the Messenger, a NASA craft, will be settle into orbit around Mercury in March 2011 to look for vulcanoids.
Discussion:
- I think that it is really interesting how almost every space in our solar system is filled with space objects, except for this one gaping hole between the Sun and Mercury.
- It would be cool if there actually was a whole other asteroid (or vulcanoid) belt between the Sun and Mercury.
- With further advancing in technology, we could find so many intriguing new facts about our solar system, our universe, and more.
Questions:
- If the gravity of the Sun if so large, then why aren't there any objects there?
- Why does Mercury have many tiny dents on its surface?
- What would happen if we found a whole vulcanoid belt between the Sun and Mercury?
Sources:
- Plait, Phil. "Invisible Planetoids." Discover. Vol. 31 Issue 6 ed. 2010.
EBSCO Host. Web. 23 Sept. 2010.
This post is very interesting. It is funny how our knowledge of the arrangement of the bodies of the solar system have stayed the same for so long and now we may add on more to it.
ReplyDeleteOne of your discussion points stated that there is empty space between the sun and mercury. We don't know that yet because the MEssenger probe hasn't been sent yet.
The timeline method of your summary is very clear. For example, it shows that Einstein corrected Verrier's theory why Mercury's orbit was slow.
This lab is very intriguing and the chance that a series of small objects exists between the sun and mercury can change the way we know the solar system.
I am sure that there were once objects between our first planet and the Sun. The variable that might be affecting the vastness of that space is the fact that the temperatures are extremely hot around the Sun. Perhaps Mercury is the closest an object can get to the Sun and still be intact. Anything closer just might burn or something close to that effect. And wow, to think that we have been studying this theory since it was developed in 1600s, thats intense and fascinating. Good job on your informative blog post, I learned something new.
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