Return to my Astronomy/Space pages
Go to my home page
© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy
In Startrek, Spock comes from the planet Vulcan, way out there somewhere in Federation space. But the name comes from a hypothetical planet right here in our own Solar System (Vulcan was the Roman god of fire). Newton's laws explained the motions of the planets and moons completely, except for two problems. The Moon's orbit proved to be extremely difficult to predict, because of the many forces (perturbations) from the various planets. Eventually, this was solved. Later, astronomers found that Mercury was moving just a little too fast in its orbit around the Sun. This problem could be explained by the existence of a small planet inside Mercury's orbit. This hypothetical planet was called Vulcan. And astronomers searched for it. Eventually, Einstein's General Relativity (See The Law of Gravity) exactly (within the limits of the measurements) accounted for the faster motion of Mercury. In fact, Mercury's orbit was the most obvious confirmation of General Relativity.