6 Hypothetical Planets of our Solar System
It might be surprising for you to know that before our technology matured, many astronomers believed that several planets (other than the recognized ones) are present in our solar system. Later research proved that some of the asteroids were erroneously labeled as planets. According to a theory, the gravitational pull of Mercury and Venus would have altered the orbit of Counter-Earth, one of the popular hypothetical planets, by shifting it to the opposite side of the solar system. Interestingly, this would have made it visible from the Earth. Here is a list of some of the hypothetical planets of our solar system.
Table of Contents
Vulcan
During the 19th century, astronomers were puzzled over unexplained deviations in the motion of Mercury. The French mathematician Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, who had previously predicted the position of Neptune on the basis of deviation in the motion of Uranus, believed that similar forces were responsible for these variations. During a lecture on January 2, 1860, he announced that the solution to Mercury’s deviations could be explained by assuming the existence of an intra-Mercurial planet, or possibly a second asteroid belt, inside Mercury’s orbit. He named it Vulcan, which was soon considered the first planet of the solar system despite the lack of scientific evidence to support his claims.
Planet V
Some 3.8 billion years ago, a barrage of asteroids, called the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB), used to hit the surfaces of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the Moon. Some scientists are of the view that these asteroids came from the remnants of Planet V, which used to orbit between Mars and the asteroid belt that separates Jupiter from the red planet. They propose that this hypothetical planet was smaller than Mars and that’s the reason why it got affected by the gravitational attraction of Jupiter. Contrary to this theory, other groups of astronomers believe that the LHB was caused by Jupiter and Saturn as they shifted into their respective orbits.
Tyche
This gas giant was believed to exist in the Oort Cloud of our Solar System. It was proposed in 1999 by a group of three astrophysicists from the University of Louisiana. The trio suggested that Tyche is the size of Jupiter, has three times the mass of Jupiter, and orbits the Sun once in 1.8 million years. Like all the other hypothetical planets, they couldn’t find a physical explanation for its existence. Recently, the analysis of the data, collected by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope of NASA between 2012 and 2014, ruled out all the possibilities of the existence of such a celestial object.
Phaeton
Up until some recent past, astronomers believed that there was an undiscovered planet between Mars and Jupiter. The existence of the hypothetical planet seemed truer when Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the planet Ceres in 1801. Similarly, the discovery, by Heinrich Olbers, of what was thought to be planet Pallas added even more weight to these claims. However, Olbers soon realized that Ceres and Pallas belong to the same planet. His idea got a massive boost when planets Juno and Vesta were found. All these hypothetical planets were later reclassified as asteroids which came from another assumed planet, called Phaeton. Having said that, modern scientists have successfully disproved the existence of Phaeton by claiming that the asteroids in the asteroid belt have always been asteroids.
Counter-Earth
In 4 BC, a Greek philosopher named Philolaus proposed the existence of a twin of our planet. He named it the Counter-Earth and suggested that it always stays on the opposite side of the solar system from Earth. What this means is that the Sun, Earth, and Counter-Earth would always be on the same line. He explained that this is the reason why we cannot observe the Counter-Earth. Just like other hypothetical planets in the list, modern scientists have rejected the idea of its existence because there are numerous flaws in its discovery.
Niburu
Also known as the Planet X, Niburu is supposedly lurking somewhere in our solar system. It was first proposed by Zecharia Sitchin in his 1976 book, The Twelfth Planet, where he claimed that it orbits the Sun every 3,600 years. Many years later, self-proclaimed psychic Nancy Lieder declared that aliens had warned her that Niburu would slam into the Earth in 2003. Later, she changed the date to 2012. Well, it’s 2019 and here you are reading this article so that means either Niburu doesn’t exist or it missed us and will return later sometime.
Computer Scientist by qualification who loves to read, write, eat, and travel