In Search Of Planet Vulcan: The Ghost In Newton's Clockwork Universe

by Richard Baum, William Sheehan

Presented for the first time in popular form is the fascinating true story of the search for the phantom planet Vulcan. As with legends of "the lost continent of Atlantis," scientists and dreamers alike have sought to prove that Vulcan is more than just a myth. Historians of astronomy Richard Baum and William Sheehan have combed the continents, digging through dusty letters and journals, to unravel this mysterious and captivating tale. The planet first assumed a shadowy reality against a backdrop of war and revolution early in the nineteenth century. Le Verrier, the autocratic Director of the Paris Observatory, had unveiled a problem with the motion of the planet Mercury. The indications were of a planet closer to the sun than Mercury. Incredibly, the prediction was immediately fulfilled by an obscure French country doctor using no more than a homemade telescope. The planet, named for the Roman god of fire, was no sooner discovered than it was lost. Still it reappeared often enough to tantalize even skeptics into considering its shadowy existence possible. This fast-paced tale follows the exploits of Le Verrier, and later of his followers, in a pursuit of his unbridled obsessions: to extend the universality of Newton's Laws, to prove Vulcan's existence, and to secure his place in history as one of the greatest astronomers of his time. Stranger than fiction, the story reaches an exciting climax in the final showdown in the unlikeliest of places: America's Wild West. Like gunslingers at high noon, determined astronomers of the opposing camps brave Indians and the elements in their attempt to prove once and for all whether the planet exists. They congregate with some of the most illustrious names of their time for the final test: a grand eclipse of the sun.

Genres: Science, Astronomy, History, Nonfiction

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

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Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Newtonian physics is a wonderful thing, and for years astronomers and mathematicians were sure that the movements of the universe could eventually be explained using Newton's theories. One particular French astronomer, Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier, was particularly adept at using mathematics to predict the movements of the planets, and actually was able to theorize the existence and location of the planet Neptune before it was actually discovered. Fresh from this success, Le Verrier set his sights on interpreting Mercury's eccentric orbit. He eventually concluded that there must be another planet between Mercury and the Sun. This was a respected theory in some circles, but it didn't really gain steam until an amateur astronomer by the name of Edmond Lescarbault claimed to have actually seen this planet, dubbed Vulcan, pass in front of the Sun. This was enough evidence for Le Verrier, who was certain that his solution could be the only logical explanation for Mercury's orbit. There followed years of scientific controversy and false alarms, as astronomers and mathematicians took sides in the debate and trucked around the world, observing solar eclipses and attempting to catch a glimpse of the elusive Vulcan. Most did not cling to the idea as enthusiastically as Le Verrier, and of course eventually Einstein was able to explain Mercury's orbit without resorting to phantom planets, but this book still tells a fascinating tale of scientific history, controversy, and competition.

[Ross Siegel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this quick jaunt down the path of scientific esoterica. As the author makes plain, this story recounts a short lived obsession from some of the greatest minds in physics to explain something for which they had no tools to framework to previously explain. If a story taking one from Newton to Einstein sounds boring, well, then it is you who probably lack depth. Newton’s initial monumental rules of the physical world led to later scientists literally spotting planets not by telescopic observation but rather through math (and then verified by visualizations). If one could do such a thing, then one could also incorrectly conjure the existence of a planet called Vulcan that would explain unpredicted variations in the way we observe Mercury’s orbit. Einstein, however, performed he reverse trick and used logic (and match) to destroy the possibly existence of Vulcan. The fun part of this book... is how.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I definitely learned a good bit I hadn't known about this topic, I wasn't particularly engrossed by Baum's writing. His worshipful portraits of the great scientists of the ages felt flat and boring to me - not to mention that he never named or discussed the assistants that did a great bulk of the work (just a few throwaway half-sentences noting their unnamed efforts), and even Einstein's wife got about two sentences (she was miserable in Prague; she left him in Berlin). If you're looking for a good nonfiction about astronomy and physics, I wouldn't put this at the top of your list.

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written account of a little known astronomical bugaboo, demonstrating how science is supposed to work.

[Christopher Hivner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating story, the search for a planet whose orbit was inside Mercury's. So sure were astronomers of the time that it existed they gave it a name, Vulcan. An amateur, Lescarbault, claimed to have seen it pass in front of the Sun, but in the proceeding years, no one else could catch a glimpse of it. So, did it really exist, and if not, how to explain the perturbation in Mercury's orbit? I thought this book was very well written in its depictions of real people and the encounters they had with each other as they raced to become the first to prove the existence of Vulcan. The hard science is written in a way to be understandable even to people like me without a mind for it.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice overview of the (ultimately fruitless) search for the planet which , due to the inability of Newtonian laws of gravitational effect to reconcile theory and observation, was thought to exist inside the orbit of Mercury. The power of authority and established reputation is strongly demonstrated, as is the power of a fixation. A very good intro to one of the most famous astronomical tests of the scientific method.