Vulcan | The Planet That Didn't Exist

I spend 40 minutes talking about literally nothing.

LINKS:

SOURCES:
Books cited / recommended to learn more:

The Hunt for Vulcan by Ben Levenson
In Search of Planet Vulcan by Richard Baum and William Sheehan
The Ascent of Gravity by Marcus Chown
Le Verrier — Magnificent and Detestable Astronomer by James Lequeux
Eclipses, Transits, and Comets of the Nineteenth Century by Stella Cottam and Wayne Orchiston

Other non-book sources (limited selection):

Transferring scientific discovery to the public: The intramercurial planet Vulcan in 1860 by Hsiang-Fu Huang
When Lack of Evidence Is Evidence of Lack by Neil Pickering
Einstein's perihelion formula and its generalization by Maurizio M. D'Eliseo

as well as various records from CRAS and newspaper archives.

PHOTO CREDITS:

Eiffel Tower photo by Cristian Bortes, CC BY 2.0,
Image of Francois Arago by Charles-Jérémie Fuhr, CC BY 2.0,

Video of 2017 Total Eclipse by Steve Sheridan, CC BY 3.0,
Statue of Le Verrier photographed by Mbzt, CC BY 3.0,
Sunset timelapsed by dejko611611, CC BY 3.0,

Sunset image taken by Dibyendutwipzbiswas, CC BY 4.0,
Video of 2015 Partial Eclipse by David Bucher, CC BY-SA 4.0,

Pluto Protest image by Darren Phillips / Associated Press

...what are you doing down here? Nobody reads the description! :D

[arcadiaberger]

All of the "demoted planets" turned out to reveal something that was actually more interesting than just a new planet: for Ceres there's the Asteroid Belt, for Pluto there's the Kuyper Belt, for Vulcan . . . *_Relativity!_*

[DanjasLP]

The thing I find most impressive about all of this is the fact that the predicted drift of Mercury was spot on, they just lacked the knowledge necessary to explain it properly.

[anotherexpansefan]

And then he left to never return, leaving me to watch the back catalog every few months wishing I could discover something more. You were the one who sparked my interest in history, science and architecture in general, and a lot of great things came out of that. You were doing something really great here, wish more people knew.

[jkel]

"I spend 40 minutes talking about literally nothing." is the most British description ever. Commenting to help with the algorithm, and also say thanks. This is one of the best youtube videos I've watched in a while.

[universalperson]

This reminds me of "Planet X", which was something I read about back in elementary school. Even after Neptune and Pluto were discovered, there were certain discrepancies in Uranus's orbit that couldn't be resolved. So obviously there was another planet!

Turns out we got Neptune's mass wrong. Once that was corrected, Uranus's orbital predictions were immediately fixed.

[horsepowermultimedia]

Pluto: Why am I not a planet anymore? :(
Vulcan: Heh. Imagine not existing.

[RockinRobbins]

I didn't know you existed. But if this is what your fans waited 3 years for, it was three years well compensated for. Thanks for a stupendous video!

[CrankyPantss]

Did Spock ever finally admit he was just flipping the planet's invisibility cloak on and off to mess with us?

[bingusbinted]

I remember watching this to help me fall asleep as a bg noise but I ended up watching the whole thing wide awake. The narration is easy to understand and the story is easy to follow. This video in particular is definitely up there with Lemmino as my top favorite space videos.

[Degenerate]

Naming a moon of Pluto, surface temp -229 Celsius, after the Roman fire god would have been pretty silly tbh.

[vlogoftea]

Does anyone else ever think how it's cool that stuff like this video exists, is free, and available for all of us to watch whenever we feel like it? I really appreciate this cool combination of technology that allows this kind of sharing in the first place, and the fact that a bunch of people are willing to put in a bunch of effort and dedication into it for no reason other than that they can and want to. Humans can be pretty freaking great.

[fard]

*_9:04_**_ "It is impossible to satisfy the conditions of uranus" i died in this part_*

[generalrubbish]

> barges in after a 4 year hiatus
> drops an absolute banger
> refuses to elaborate
> leaves

[frenchfriar]

This was the most in-depth dive into the history of Vulcan I have ever seen. This has the quality of a National Geographic presentation.
I would love to see you do another video concerning the other "ghost planets" of the system, like Phaeton or even Theia.
Thank you so very much for this, subscribing off the strength of this one video.

[twotothehalf]

"Bruh, is that a... oh. Holy shit, he's back! Is he? ...oh yeah, he's back. Oh my goodness." -- my actual reaction to seeing this video on my homepage.

This is such a well-crafted video, especially for someone claiming to be "a little rusty". I am already partial towards space stuff and history, but your narration kept me hooked for the entire runtime -- and not to mention, the visuals. You very much have a talent for this, and I'm excited to see whatever else you make, whenever that may be.

[PepperTheBirb]

And when the world needed him most... He returned.

[blobofdespair]

This was outstanding.

The timing, visuals, humor, etc. were such a perfect blend. I really enjoyed this topic because you made it fun to learn about. Really, really well done.

I'm looking forward to looking into your archive as well as future content. Instant subscription.

[_JayRamsey_]

Don't feel bad Le Verrier, none of us will live to observe Vulcan either.

[MisakaMikotoDesu]

This is a fantastic essay on how some of the smartest experts can come up with the wrong answer even when they're doing good science.

[mj]

First of all the amount of editing detail is just insane. The story telling, the added tiny factoids and details, jokes. I was just hooked for 45 minutes, like a cat on the lasers dot.