Is that a titanic reference? I know someone that worked on a Titanic “show and tell” style show in NW Australia. Yes, I am aware the titanic was never even in the pacific. It’s something I mean to ask “why?” next time I see the guy.
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!_*
Seeing UA-cam channels I like to watch comment on videos of other channels I like to watch always feels so much more exciting than it actually is. Give me a crossover episode or something!
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.
like what @titan-1802 said, some still believe that there is still a planet 9 . As there are a bunch of objects in the kuiper belt such as sedna with ridiculously elliptical orbits that could go past 12000 years. But itd have to be so far away it is almost impossible to find it with telescopes even with a similar size to neptune, since you would have to look at a veeeeery large survey area
@@bliss_gore5194 Which is why mathematical predcition is so important It doesn't help that most stuff that's "not a planet" is _dark_ (ie: very low albdeo) on a dark background Hopefully Starship will allow more very large telescopes to be sent out to the lagrange points at costs low enough to dedicate one or two to intrasolar-system surveying (we need bigger scopes at L4 and L5 for solar surveying too - right now we don't have a good handle on CMEs) (TBH: Webb ended up costing so much and being so complicated that by the time of its launch the cost could have been halved by dumping what had been done so far and starting over - one of the problems of there "only being one" of anything is that everyone loads up an entire marching band and kitchen sink to its task list, which drives the costs into the stratosphere as well as impacting schedules)
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.
Makes you wonder what people a century or two from now will think of some of our current scientific ideas which are basically just placeholders for things we don't know, like dark matter and dark energy
"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.
@@sedme0 Have to admit I've not really got round to watching Seinfeld. If this is a quote for the show, Zepherus has used it in a very clever way, that sums up the British vernacular and our ability to be slighty self deprciating in a comedic way while making a statement with more than one meaning.
@@jkel16 Huh. I may have to move to Britain then because that’s basically my whole sense of humor. Add random obscure Star Trek references and you get me talking for 40 minutes about everything.
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.
@@the_real_Kurt_Yarish I get that, I have been watching him for a long time. Haven't seen this big of a pause - maybe I'm mistaken tho. Regardless, will definitely watch whatever he posts next :D
@@anotherexpansefan Over three years passed between this video and his second-to-last one, "The Dreadnought Hoax". Nearly four years. We've only been waiting for the next one about a year and a half. It'll probably be a while longer before we see the next video, if the trend sticks. We'll see. I'm sure it will be worth the wait.
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.
Also, while good I have to say I do not accept everything we see on UA-cam as real. I know they got this good soul got it right and there is evidence that this is good and real. But when you have seen all the FlatEarthers, gurus and sovcits you learn that have to do your due diligence and make sure that the video you see is worth your time. Being on UA-cam does not make it real but getting it right makes it worth it. 👍🏿
This was suggested to me about a week ago and I'm just getting around to it. Just judging by the views already (about 2/3s of the last upload, I'd have to agree and I'm excited to dive in.
@@RockinRobbins13 most likely on googles no share list. fb has one too. i tried to send a link to a friend for a black hat marketing site and it was deleted instantly with a warning.
@@RabidlyTaboo I can't share a You Tube video on a You Tube comments section. Hopefully they'll relax the craziness soon. This sort of thing has happened before and been corrected.
I hatee to inform him but finally the real planet Nibiru returned on time the day of the recent Mexico 7.2 quake...It however is not our current problem...The ancient planet that formed the asteoid belt, the Earth and moon and the waters above is over head as I type.Semidesrtoyed TIAMAT..Go to Hush Puppy planet x
I paused the video there and read the two paragraphs, it sounds like it was from natural causes but it was unusual because normally he had a rule never to go on a boat because both his brother and father had drowned, but the second time in his life that he did go on a boat it sank.
Most of science is guess and check. You can use reason and logic to help, but it usually takes a lot of wrong guessing to help narrow down the right one.
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.
@@chadcuckproducer1037 its the leading hypothesis for our moon's formation. There are others but it is considered to be the most likely. If the hypothesis is true though then yes.. That is exactly what Theia is.. well.. was.
@@EspeonMistress00 that one is still ongoing, so it's more difficult to find unbiased information. But it would be great to see one about planet 9 and/or even nemesis, the proposed red dwarf regularly bombarding the solar system with asteroids and comets by passing through the oort cloud
Well, you can give the name to the gas Giant that crashed into the Sun in the early ages of the Solar System, courtesy of Jupiter (and this is the reason our star has those small rocky planets, they are essentially what would have been the moons of this missing planet). What better name for a planet that got burned away?
@@jeffbenton6183 the current knowledge of the formation of planets denotes that the combined mass of the interior planets is significantly lower than it should. There is also a zone in the Sun with abnormally low temperatures, relatively speaking. We also have proof that the four gas giants used to have very erratic movements during the aglutination process, and took a long time stabilize into their current orbits, and almost every single simulation shows Jupiter ejecting one of the planets in a practically random direction. Because of this the current theory is that there used to be at least one more gas Giant in the early stages of the Solar System, that got sent into deep space and/or into the Sun during those early gravitational movements.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
I too was stuck on it like flypaper. The only thing better than this presentation and its humor and details, is that I was eating some spaghetti and meatballs while I was watching it. That's probably what Einstein was eating when he thought up the Theory of Relativity.
Honestly, every time I hear the procession of Mercury explained, I just giddily think that if you resurrected all these post-Newton-pre-Einstein astronomers from centuries past, put them in a room, and explicated to them the truth about relativity, you would probably not escape the room without hundreds of infuriated astronomers seeking to beat you to death. Imagine realizing that all your angry rivalries and fervent beliefs and heated debates were all based upon a fundamentally oversimplified understanding of the universe.
It would depend on the level of ego a person invested into their theories and beliefs. Those seeking truth are often open to correction while the ones trying to be right will sacrifice logic in the mental acrobatics it takes continue in delusions, which often results in aggression.
The title of the video grabbed me (yeah, I'm a Trek fan) and I only planned to watch a few moments of it...but instead I found myself engrossed in the history and the way you presented it and ended up staying all the way to the end. Very well done video.
This is my first Zepherus video, and it's extremely entertaining and engaging. I love how relaxed and conversational it was, while still having wit and playful callbacks. Time for an archive binge, you earned yourself a subscription.
This is the best video essay I've ever seen. The amount of research you put into this, conveying really complicated information (literal astrophysics) in a simple & straightforward way, over a span of 45 minutes without it ever slowing down or getting tedious is amazing. The editing; the script; the factuality; everything about this video is perfect. Wow
I remember when I was young, there was an entire episode of Arthur C Clarke's mysterious world devoted to Vulcan. His final conclusion was that 'Vulcan _may_ have existed, but if it did, it almost certainly doesn't any more. Nowadays, I think it's pretty absolute that it _never_ existed, but it was interesting how long the existence of this planet fascinated Mankind for... Edit: Found it! /watch?v=1-GQuOtu4S8&ab_channel=GoodOl%27Stuff
The question is mostly "when". If anything existed inside the orbit of Mercury it most likely ceased to exist long before life on earth figured out how to assemble blocks into eukarotic cells
Dear sir. I am a science and math idiot. I majored in English and went into law specifically to avoid having to take even one more math or science class after high school. This video appeared in my YT suggestion list because I have been binging Star Trek video essays for the last several weeks. The title intrigued me. So imagine my surprise (shock, really) to find myself literally sitting on the edge of my seat, leaning forward for 45 minutes as you explained the history of this “lost” planet. Even more shocking, I UNDERSTOOD IT. I freaking understood the concept of Newton’s gravitational law and Einstein’s theory. Couldn’t calculate it or even explain it to anyone else, but I followed your whole video. Your explanation, your delivery, and your illustrations are phenomenal. I’m 50+ years old and for the first time, I get it. I hardly ever write comments, but, here you are. Thank you for this. This video is a masterpiece.
And there I was glorying in the fact that he could use the traditional pronunciation of that planet with this audience and not raise an eyebrow... And yet this audience still manages to make a joke about it that is still intelligent and shows an appropriate level of education ;-)
Your account leaves Le Verrier looking like a decent scientist, which is nice to see. He seems to have genuinely followed an honest approach to his hypotheses. And then we still have the unexplained sightings, and another honest man, the doctor. An intriguing story, all round.
I'm putting this out there. UFOs are real. And worst case scenario. We have space travel and invisible technology as just humans. I doubt it was just human innovation but if it was. We can do it. . So take it how u want. . I saw a ufo. Was it government or aliens? v'-'v Idk but it was advanced and not an airplane. . Had a couple other experiences but none as clear as that one. . There's a strange light in the west or south west. It seems like a very bright star but not one I've ever seen. I've seen a planets shine and that object gives off planet vibes. . The ufo I saw dispeared in the direction that light has caught my notice. . Now the ufo sighting was like 3-5 years ago. This light is something I noticed this year So like salt take it lightly but if anyone knows more I'd happy to listen.
Even though this was uploaded 9 months ago. I was just so happy you updated. You always produce such quality content and it is hard to believe thay your initial videos were from 5 years ago. Power and I hope you are doing what you love.
Vulcan's just shy because so many people keep trying to spot him. There's a reason he mostly stays in his forge (the sun). He was just getting out for a bit to stretch his leg.
as someone who has been an astronomy fan for all of her life, I love this video so much. you somehow managed to make me invested in a planet that I already know didn’t exist.
“He was vain, often arrogant, rude and was by most accounts a pretty difficult person to work with” Sounds like literally every university lecturer/professor I’ve ever known
"Vulcan" might have been a captured comet nucleus in a decaying orbit around the sun. It may have been several dying cometary bodies that were mistaken as a single planet.
I think it was all atmospheric, clouds, and so on. It was spotted as a dark disk transiting over minutes across the disk of the sun, by amateurs who didn't have training in atmospheric distractions.
@@hevendor958 PH27 is only a kilometer wide. Too small to be observed in any meaningful way other than maybe a small dot that zipped around the sun unusually fast.
There actually is something closer to the sun than mercury. It's an asteroid called PH27 although it's probably too small to be what people thought vulcan was.
I thought him making a video about a lighthouse and keeping my interested for 26 minutes was impressive...but here's a video where I learn about nothing and it keeps me entertained for 45...
I love this video so much. I've watched it the whole way through at least 10 times. Everytime it shows up in my recommended videos my immediate thought upon seeing the thumbnail is always, "Oh!! I love this video!" And when it starts up I always get really exicted to absorb all the information again and refresh all of it. I love this video.
The same methodology underlies the "Nemesis" theory, that there is a large but as yet undiscovered object beyond the Oort Cloud, whose orbit occasionally pushes unusual numbers of ice chunks towards the inner Solar System, some of which eventually hit Earth and cause mass extinctions. I'm not advocating that theory, just mentioning that its basic argument is similar.
Nemesis is intriguing. That a dwarf star exists as a binary to our sun. Most solar systems are binary so it would make some sense. Last I read, analyses make it doubtful. But there are some theories that it did once exist (maybe was stripped away by another passing solar system). Such an interesting idea
@@alaskanmooseman5975 There is another theory that roughly every 50,000 to 75,000 another solar system gets close enough to kick things towards the inner solar system, based on some observations of single transit stellar objects and observations of Oumuamua and interstellar object candidates.
@@Tuberuser187 And of course, Planet 9, which through orbital resonance, has shifted some very distant Keiper belt objects, including some dwarf planets, at a 90 degree angle to the solar plane. P9's orbit is meant to be about 95 astronomical units from the Sun at the closest point, and nearly 1000 at it's furthest, and takes about 20,000 years to orbit. It is theorized to be about 5-10 Earth masses; a small "ice giant" like it's sibling Neptune. The reasoning is quite solid and there hasn't been a convincing counter theory for those unusual Keiper belt object orbits. Bit off topic but I love the study of those extremely distant, tiny worlds, almost beyond our ability to find. Maybe James-Webb?
I think it’s a grapefruit sized black hole,if there is something out there.Makes sense why we wouldn’t be able to catch a view of it for hundreds of years.
First time viewer, long time astronomy lover. I thought everything about this video was fabulous: organization, presentation, CGP Grey references, general humor, animation, everything. Thank you so much for the obviously huge amount of effort that you put into this video!
24:19 According to the Wiki page for Vulcan (something added after the publication of this video), the existence and name of Vulcan was proposed by Jacques Babinet in 1846 (it cites Baum & Sheehan's book "In Search of Planet Vulcan", page 156). The famous Hall Colby map was submitted to Library of Congress on the 8th of October, 1846. So it is possible that Hall Colby heard about the speculation and included it in his map. If you look at planetary maps from the time, it is not unusual to find non-existent or yet-to-be-discovered moons and other minor objects. I guess people were so used to all new discoveries being correct, that they felt they erred on the side of caution by including them all.
Not gonna lie, I clicked on this video thinking it was another trekkie culture video taking a deep dive into Star Trek Lore about Vulcan and First Contact, etc. But this was way better than what I was expecting. You did a superb job making all of that (what I'm certain was) tedious research about Vulcan-mania, Le Verrier, and astronomy very understandable to someone like me whose last formal astronomy lesson was in high school 10+ years ago. Excellent work! I would definitely love to see more videos like this. Maybe some on biology theories that were popular and disproved by one rival camp or another. Or psychology. So many possibilities that I'm sure you'd do well with. Thanks for teaching me something I never knew!
I was a bit saddened to not hear a bit about the similar situation that played out with Pluto- how Tombaugh found it looking for yet another planet to solve problems with the gas giants' orbits, similarly to how the Vulcan-Mercury situation played out. Still an excellent video- it's great to see scientific discovery put into a cohesive narrative like this.
This was absolutely awesome. A deep dive into an area of history I never heard of before. I love how you even went into the social movement of it. Great stuff.
Watched the previous videos of his a long long time ago, I'm surprised YT even remembered I did that after several years, and immediately recommending this one.
Vulcan was reserved indefinitely, just in case there's anything closer to the Sun than Mercury is. these days, instead of a planet, the Vulcanoids are a hypothesized asteroid group whose mere existence or absence would provide tons of information about how the planets were formed.
This is really interesting considering that later there would be a similar mania about a supposed "Planet X" that would explain Uranus's orbit; followed by an assumption that the newly discovered Pluto was that Planet X; followed by increasing evidence that Pluto couldn't possibly be Planet X, thus leaving the mystery open again; followed by discoveries that resolved the mystery without any need for a Planet X. Think you'll ever do a video on that?
Not sure if you've seen that video as well, but a channel called geographic actually did a pretty interesting video on "planet X". If you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it.
I love this. Kept the mention of rivalries and egos to a the absolute minimum and just told the story about the planets' calculated orbits. Restricting the vocabulary and astronomy jargon for tautology and consistency was a good call too. Finally, the math is interesting without being overcomplicated. Thanks for making this video and translating a lot of French to do it
Man, I'm currently watching all of your videos. Your narration style is so good I wish you'd upload more often. But with this kind of quality, I'm willing to wait :) I hope whatever you have next in store is equally good!
I wonder if any of those possible ‘sightings’ of Vulcan were actually stray comets or asteroids or something. An amateur at least may mistake one for a small planet. One time transits. Really interesting video!
Problem is the transits were weirdly regular/irregular. Either the object was temporarily trapped for a specific amount of time and either eventually collapsed or slingshot into the darkness. Not all observations could have been fake. This is a really interesting mystery
@@sushanthadusumilli1067 I suppose there are two ways to answer this: Determine how likely such alignments are, or look at historical solar observations from SOHO or SDO to determine how often anomalous black spots transit the Sun. You would need some sort of computer program to thoroughly analyze the terabytes upon terabytes of data from decades of solar observation, but it's doable. You would think at this point someone would have looked into the matter, but if my personal research into other 19th century astronomical mysteries has taught me anything, it's that modern astronomy hardly cares about pre-astrophysics astronomy.
This was one of those sorts of videos I thought I'd flick through to get the jist of things but actually ended up watching every second, totally entranced. Keep up the good work!
It's so weird to hear the talk about Vulcan having been considered a real planet when the only place I had heard the name before was Star Trek and therefore always thought the name was made up. It is interesting tho, that the series creators decided still to call Spock's homeworld that, as a nod to an interesting controversy of the astronomy community.
Did you never get to read any stories of Roman and Greek mythology? If so, that's too bad. Vulcan, to the Romans, Hephaestus to the Greeks, was the smith to the gods. Among the perfect figures the gods present, he was crippled, a little misshapen. He was also the husband to Venus/Aphrodite, so there's some humor or irony to him. But he was strong, as befits a smith.
@@theBaron0530 We did learn Greek mythology more in depth and touched Roman mythology only on surface. The only main thing I remembered from Roman mythology was that it was copied from the Greeks and that was that. If the name Vulcan was ever mentioned, I guess I just forgot it lol.
@@kellirandoja As a quick aside Vulcan's name is where the word volcano comes from, for obvious reasons. It was thought that volcanic eruptions were caused by Vulcan smithing divine weapons.
I've always wondered why the late sf author James Blish would repeatedly mention in some of his novelizations of classic Star Trek episodes that the planet of Mr. Spock's origin ought not to be confused with "the Solar planet of the same name."
Well to be fair, the people that believe in planets like Vulcan or Nibiru don't care about data; they want to believe their little doomsday conspiracy theories.
@@SepticFuddy Nice bait, but nobody thinks Covid is gonna “cull the planet.” We just don’t wanna get sick if we can avoid it, and the virus is stubborn.
@@2yoyoyo1Unplugged a lot of people think Covid was created as a means to population control. I can't throw out statistics here but I know enough people hooked on conspiracies to say it has a healthy following from all backgrounds regardless of education and skill level. I just want to be clear that yes, it is utter nonsense.
HOLY SHIT! Just yesterday I was looking through my UA-cam subscribtion list, and thought to myself: "So sad that Zepherus stopped uploading, he made awesome stuff." So happy that you decided to return! Honestly, the discarded and disproven scientific theories of yesteryear are really interesting. I wouldn´t mind if there was more content like that. Editing was top notch by the way.
Wow the video is so interesting and well made! I love how it doesn't have annoying sound effect or background music so I can focus on the context itself. Really enjoyed watching
Thank you SO MUCH for explaining why relativity was such a big deal in a way that I could understand, and for explaining its contents in a few sentences
I did some digging on the map at 24:28. The map was created by Hall Colby in 1846 and then a physical model/orrery was said to have been made in 1847. and the model is said to have been seen by notable people in NY like Chester Dewey, and William L Hudson. Who made comments about its uses as a teaching tool. There is no mention of Vulcan anywhere....... this is all from Hall Colby's own book in 1859 (Improved Nautical Almanac, or True Navigator). So i think the map is real but somone altered it to add Vulcan later on.
Coming to watch this video one year later. Still one of my favorite videos on this platform. So informative and engaging. The tale of the planet that never existed is one of the most interesting science tales I've ever seen
This is the first video of yours that I've seen, and it is incredibly well-produced. I loved how each chapter was separated by a view of the eclipse, finally culminating in a chapter about the eclipse itself. Very slick. I'm looking forward to checking out your other videos!
Always good to see history of science presented and explained in an engaging way, to show the _process_ by which scientists over the centuries have moved, including false paths and interpretations that turned out to be wrong, because that is part of the progressive method of science: recognizing incongruities, admitting mistakes & learning from them, discarding falsified hypotheses, working with other scientists and incorporating new data to come up with a more robust interpretation of natural phenomena. I wish more schools had the time to include history of science their curriculum instead of presenting scientific findings as a sort of rote learning or dogma. Because once science is presented as a sort of dogma, it's easy for religious fundamentalists and postmodernists to claim that robust scientific Theories well-supported by evidence are merely "theories" (as in, mere ideas or opinion or belief, as the phrase _"I have a theory_ is used in colloquial English). And once science is demoted to mere "opinion" or "belief", as equally "true" as all other opinions out there, it can then be dismissed as something "scientists made up" for nefarious reasons [insert whatever pseudo-science or anti-science conspiracy theory fad is trending here], or worse, as heresy against religious dogma.
It's funny, considering Star Trek. The writers of the show must have been aware of this non-existent planet contraversy and reused the fake planet name as an "Easter egg".
The Star Trek planet is described as very hot and dry, matching Vulcan's (the god's) attributes. There's no relation to the theorised planet. Speaking in-universe, it's only the Terran/English nickname, anyway. The residents have their own name for their home.
I was thinking the same thing throughout! I really want to go back to the old Star Trek and look for little science easter eggs now! I just don’t want to see William Shatner make out with green blobs. At least Sir Patrick Lewis wasn’t such a man-whore. ;) It’s funny how much knowledge is lost with time: there were so many things written into songs, shows, and popular culture that push the human knowledge bar further, but with all the other “creative” ideas we have mixed-in the good gets lost with the bad leaving only veritable facts that survive for generations to get acknowledged. But even those, like the science of the ancient cultures will eventually be lost. There is just so much to know. The geeky jokes in this vid made it so amazing. Let’s just not be idiots and fall back into another dark age due to pestilence. Be safe and be smart people.
I hadn’t heard of the planet Vulcan (outside of Star Trek) before watching this video. Honestly I’m ashamed about that, calling myself an astronomy nerd. Anyway, amazing video. I hope to see more of you in the future!
Stayed subscribed for nearly 4 years in the hopes of seeing another video, and you really delivered. Amazing and informative video, it was 40 minutes very well spent. I hope to see more in the future :)
I think the IAU didn't go with Vulcan because there would be too much confusion with vulcanoids, which are hypothetical asteroids swinging around Sol inside Mercury's orbit. Lescarbault's sighting might have been of one. Also, Vulcan is a god in his own right. God of the forge. He deserves a planet of his own.
Well, Ceres is the goddess of the harvest, Pluto the god of the underworld. Things don't always work out like we think they should. And if you say those were assumed to be planets at the time(you'd be correct) what about Vesta?
> Lescarbault's sighting might have been of one I've just done a post about this. Even if there are any Vulcanoids, it's generally accepted that they would have been too small for C19th telescopes to pick up. The same goes for confirmed objects like 2021 PH27 which spend at least part of their orbit in the sub Mercurial zone.
Bloody hell, this is a well-constructed and entertaining essay. I hope you will make more, but if you get backlogged, just know that you introduced an astronomy buff to something he never even heard of before. Really, really well done. Cheers.
32:57 "Falling out of love with a pet project for a couple of years? Completely foreign to me".. Nice touch. Fantastic video btw, well put together.. New sub for sure.
In some way the whole debacle with Vulcan might've been helpful in surprising ways. The extra news coverage and hype it generated must've brought it into Einstein's attention and if not directly helped him form the theory, at least give him an easy pointer to prove his theory to greater audiences with a very famous example case.
It's unlikely, since Einstein was not born yet or much too young (born in 1879). In 1917, when he presented his model of gravitation, he was 38 years old. He was most likely well aware of the Vulcan idea. But the problem of Mercury's orbit was too big for astronomers to ignore anyway; Vulcan would have been a distraction. And he won his Nobel Prize on another matter completely (the photoelectric effect), a contribution to quantum physics. Einstein is unique for his huge contributions to two fields of physics that don't fit with each other: general relativity and quantum mechanics. He is famous for his relativity theories, but his better known, in the general population, applied contributions revolve around quantum physics.
Gone for 3 years and didn't miss a beat - this video was phenomenal. So glad I finally know the full story of this thing, I've heard bits about it for years!
This video is very susprisingly well-made. I like the way you makes it not as boring as other vids are by putting interesting fonts and most importantly, the perfect visualisation, followed with your speaking tone haha. Yeah I watched it till' the very end and I totally think you deserve more subs, anyways, one from me!
I think a key element in why this persisted so long is that, well, observations were still pretty sketchy at the time. photographic plates were not being used in astronomy yet, so you basically had a short period of time to make an eyeball observation and log it. even with experienced people, that makes validation very difficult.
First of all, I'm positively surprised you managed to capture my brain's short attention span, and since I have a great lack of knowledge on this subject. Your narration is incredible, I managed to stay hooked through the entire thing while somewhat understanding the explanations you give (mostly the historical parts rather than the astrological ones). It's my first video from you and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I'm gonna go binge watch your past content while waiting for more uploads! It's definitely worth the wait :D
It's been 84 years...
Oh my god I’m a huge fan of you!
One Uranus year = 84 Earth years? Lol
Is that a titanic reference? I know someone that worked on a Titanic “show and tell” style show in NW Australia.
Yes, I am aware the titanic was never even in the pacific. It’s something I mean to ask “why?” next time I see the guy.
It's actually only been three hours mate.
Hey titanic, how’s the bottom of the Atlantic been lately? Heard it’s quite cold.
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!_*
Planet nine? Will it be debunked or has it really be detected? Will we learn something because of it?
@@allan9603 I think that plantologists should weigh in on the discussion. Isn't their job to study planets?
@@allan9603 They need to jump into lots of worlds
What do y'all have against educated astronomers lmao
Can we demote Saturn? Saturn is shit. I hate Saturn
Welcome back!
Seeing UA-cam channels I like to watch comment on videos of other channels I like to watch always feels so much more exciting than it actually is.
Give me a crossover episode or something!
How does this video rate on your astronomical scale?
I like how he pointed out where Vulcan was on a map. 👍👍
@@yatokami7907 My (arguably silly) Hobby is to recommend fun education channel
like this one here to RANDOM people!
@@yatokami7907 I legit just love to recommend science-channel
or just general education also...
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.
though, the Clustering of Many Dwarf Planets and Objects like Sedna where questioning, so there could be a Ninth Planet, not Pluto
like what @titan-1802 said, some still believe that there is still a planet 9 . As there are a bunch of objects in the kuiper belt such as sedna with ridiculously elliptical orbits that could go past 12000 years. But itd have to be so far away it is almost impossible to find it with telescopes even with a similar size to neptune, since you would have to look at a veeeeery large survey area
@@bliss_gore5194 Which is why mathematical predcition is so important
It doesn't help that most stuff that's "not a planet" is _dark_ (ie: very low albdeo) on a dark background
Hopefully Starship will allow more very large telescopes to be sent out to the lagrange points at costs low enough to dedicate one or two to intrasolar-system surveying (we need bigger scopes at L4 and L5 for solar surveying too - right now we don't have a good handle on CMEs)
(TBH: Webb ended up costing so much and being so complicated that by the time of its launch the cost could have been halved by dumping what had been done so far and starting over - one of the problems of there "only being one" of anything is that everyone loads up an entire marching band and kitchen sink to its task list, which drives the costs into the stratosphere as well as impacting schedules)
I remember Eris was called Planet X for awhile.
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.
Yeah. If La Verrier lived in a time when general relativity was known, he probably could've figured it out.
Makes you wonder what people a century or two from now will think of some of our current scientific ideas which are basically just placeholders for things we don't know, like dark matter and dark energy
@@oliviapg It'll probably look exactly like what Vulcan looks like to us now.
@@oliviapg What is dark energy?
@@lpfan4491 The currently unknown reason why the universe's expansion is accelerating
"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.
@@sedme0 Have to admit I've not really got round to watching Seinfeld. If this is a quote for the show, Zepherus has used it in a very clever way, that sums up the British vernacular and our ability to be slighty self deprciating in a comedic way while making a statement with more than one meaning.
@@jkel16 Huh. I may have to move to Britain then because that’s basically my whole sense of humor. Add random obscure Star Trek references and you get me talking for 40 minutes about everything.
Space doesn't exist.
@six zero zero (contains spoilers) Nor does the planet Vulcan... In either sense.
@@jkel16 fool. the asteroid Vulcan exists.
Pluto: Why am I not a planet anymore? :(
Vulcan: Heh. Imagine not existing.
Imagine
Lol
Pluto: Who said that?!
Pluto: Live long and prosper
Vulcan: @#$% mutter, mutter
Pluto be like: I had schizo
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.
@@the_real_Kurt_Yarish I get that, I have been watching him for a long time. Haven't seen this big of a pause - maybe I'm mistaken tho.
Regardless, will definitely watch whatever he posts next :D
@@anotherexpansefan Over three years passed between this video and his second-to-last one, "The Dreadnought Hoax". Nearly four years. We've only been waiting for the next one about a year and a half. It'll probably be a while longer before we see the next video, if the trend sticks. We'll see. I'm sure it will be worth the wait.
@@the_real_Kurt_Yarish same! We shall see.
This one took 4 years so... maybe in another 3?
Another 3 should do
Naming a moon of Pluto, surface temp -229 Celsius, after the Roman fire god would have been pretty silly tbh.
maybe that roman fire god likes cold fires
You really need a more fiery planet for that name
@@scottydu81 maybe for Venus if one day she get a moon
And Venus, the Roman god of beauty, gets a blasted hellscape for a planet. At least Mercury and Jupiter are appropriate to their names
@@Cordman1221 i mean venus is hot like venus
Did Spock ever finally admit he was just flipping the planet's invisibility cloak on and off to mess with us?
I love you
🤣
Lol
Always a pleasure to encounter a fellow person of culture.
*tips hat*
No, why would I do that, it got blown up
*_9:04_**_ "It is impossible to satisfy the conditions of uranus" i died in this part_*
*_10:24_**_ "Mercury was misbehaving, like uranus was."_*
"one day, i will be mature enough to not laugh at uranus"
@@secktuss9610 you will not outgrow the meme that is uranus
Glad I'm not the only one who almost died at this part
Grow up.
I like to imagine Vulcan used to exist, but collapsed into the sun before anyone could see it
Science isn’t about what you “like to imagine”
@@lindseylindsey9200 shut up
@@Kkrusername No
@@lindseylindsey9200 imagining could become a theory
@@Kkrusername If they can produce evidence, then yes, it could.
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.
well, i mean, youtube does make money off of ads, but yeah, it is really cool
Humans aren't that great
@@ronjayrose9706 some are
Honestly the best comment I've ever read ever.
Also, while good I have to say I do not accept everything we see on UA-cam as real. I know they got this good soul got it right and there is evidence that this is good and real.
But when you have seen all the FlatEarthers, gurus and sovcits you learn that have to do your due diligence and make sure that the video you see is worth your time. Being on UA-cam does not make it real but getting it right makes it worth it. 👍🏿
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!
@Magi Why can you post links but any post I publish with a link in it is deleted by Google?
Absolutely, what an incredible video
This was suggested to me about a week ago and I'm just getting around to it.
Just judging by the views already (about 2/3s of the last upload, I'd have to agree and I'm excited to dive in.
@@RockinRobbins13 most likely on googles no share list. fb has one too. i tried to send a link to a friend for a black hat marketing site and it was deleted instantly with a warning.
@@RabidlyTaboo I can't share a You Tube video on a You Tube comments section. Hopefully they'll relax the craziness soon. This sort of thing has happened before and been corrected.
Glad you're back, my man!
Luke Stephans himself?😲
Ma Man
I hatee to inform him but finally the real planet Nibiru returned on time the day of the recent Mexico 7.2 quake...It however is not our current problem...The ancient planet that formed the asteoid belt, the Earth and moon and the waters above is over head as I type.Semidesrtoyed TIAMAT..Go to Hush Puppy planet x
@@marcgottlieb9579 you forgot to take your meds mate
You should do a historical video next :)
I'm really curious about the "mysterious circumstances" under which Le Verriers rival drowned. Sounds really interesting
Wine.
substance
I paused the video there and read the two paragraphs, it sounds like it was from natural causes but it was unusual because normally he had a rule never to go on a boat because both his brother and father had drowned, but the second time in his life that he did go on a boat it sank.
@@sarahberknerthank you for your service
@@sarahberknerdude's cursed what the heck?
And when the world needed him most... He returned.
What I was going to comment lol
the most overused comment on content creators that take a while to upload, sigh
@@1Steins I don't care
@@1Steins True, but there’s content creators taking “a while” to upload, and then there’s Zepherus being gone for three and a half years.
Lol check out the top comment at 41:20
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.
"Mr.Spock, we can have you on Vulcan in a half hour." TMP ending if Vulcan was really there.
Most of science is guess and check. You can use reason and logic to help, but it usually takes a lot of wrong guessing to help narrow down the right one.
@@jlondon1441 Avtually, it takes new observations before science can guess again.
Yes. I've forgotten to add "insightful" to my list of praises.
Because “wrong” answers aren’t actually “wrong,” just “wrong” to another persons’ Opinion. Relativism and Subjectivism…
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.
Much much better than National Geographic because it's not talking down to me and the units are in SI.
Wasn't theia the planetoid that collided with the earth and helped form the moon?
@@chadcuckproducer1037 its the leading hypothesis for our moon's formation. There are others but it is considered to be the most likely. If the hypothesis is true though then yes.. That is exactly what Theia is.. well.. was.
Or Planet X the 9th planet beyond pluto in the Kuiper Belt
@@EspeonMistress00 that one is still ongoing, so it's more difficult to find unbiased information. But it would be great to see one about planet 9 and/or even nemesis, the proposed red dwarf regularly bombarding the solar system with asteroids and comets by passing through the oort cloud
> barges in after a 4 year hiatus
> drops an absolute banger
> refuses to elaborate
> leaves
We're at two years since this video. Let's hope he comes back in two more years 🙏
Don't feel bad Le Verrier, none of us will live to observe Vulcan either.
At least he died with the prospect of it actually existing.
Man, poor haephestus. His planet doesn't even get to actually exist.
Well, you can give the name to the gas Giant that crashed into the Sun in the early ages of the Solar System, courtesy of Jupiter (and this is the reason our star has those small rocky planets, they are essentially what would have been the moons of this missing planet). What better name for a planet that got burned away?
@@joanaguayoplanell4912 which small rocky planet and gas giant that crashed into the sun you talking about?
@@joanaguayoplanell4912 There's also the hypothetical "Vulcanoids":
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcanoid
@@joanaguayoplanell4912
Wait what?
@@jeffbenton6183 the current knowledge of the formation of planets denotes that the combined mass of the interior planets is significantly lower than it should. There is also a zone in the Sun with abnormally low temperatures, relatively speaking. We also have proof that the four gas giants used to have very erratic movements during the aglutination process, and took a long time stabilize into their current orbits, and almost every single simulation shows Jupiter ejecting one of the planets in a practically random direction. Because of this the current theory is that there used to be at least one more gas Giant in the early stages of the Solar System, that got sent into deep space and/or into the Sun during those early gravitational movements.
"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.
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.
i watched it to fall asleep, fell asleep, woke up and rewatching it the first thing in the morning.
I have the opposite problem; I am really fascinated by this but fall asleep partway through repeatedly.
"You will see sir, that I demostrate it is impossible to satisfy the conditions of Uranus" 🤔
Doctor is it that bad? Am I going to die?
@@Auraborias it feels good, but how does it feel for you?
funniest damn thing I've heard all week
That must surely mean thine willy is hopelessly too small for such an endeavor.
"Mercury was misbehaving like Uranus was, but in a slightly different way"
LMAO
Context
When you Uranus starts to misbehave, maybe you should see a doctor.
and I can clearly see Uranus with the naked eye.
Are you like 12 years old?
This is such a well made video. I came here because of Star Trek, and left with knowledge I never would have learned otherwise. Wonderfully explained.
Same! Saw this in a discord server and I'm 1 minute in. Hoping to see a Star Trek or Spock reference.
dude same
Me too!
This is the only star trek comment I saw.
@@MDG-mykys I said "Vulcan is real, go ask Spock"
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.
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.
I lost track of time
@@reidysmeidy5772 Same here. These 45 minutes felt like just five. Huzzah, relativity! :)
yes, this is an amazing video, felt like 15 min
I too was stuck on it like flypaper. The only thing better than this presentation and its humor and details, is that I was eating some spaghetti and meatballs while I was watching it. That's probably what Einstein was eating when he thought up the Theory of Relativity.
You compared yourself to a sub-human animal? Yikes
Honestly, every time I hear the procession of Mercury explained, I just giddily think that if you resurrected all these post-Newton-pre-Einstein astronomers from centuries past, put them in a room, and explicated to them the truth about relativity, you would probably not escape the room without hundreds of infuriated astronomers seeking to beat you to death.
Imagine realizing that all your angry rivalries and fervent beliefs and heated debates were all based upon a fundamentally oversimplified understanding of the universe.
But do you think they would be surprised? I think that those guys knew that they were just piecing together fragments, not explaining everything ever.
**cough** dark matter **cough**
@@snardi You'll probably get beaten up first before they accept that theory. These people basically devoted their lives to this.
It would depend on the level of ego a person invested into their theories and beliefs. Those seeking truth are often open to correction while the ones trying to be right will sacrifice logic in the mental acrobatics it takes continue in delusions, which often results in aggression.
Astronomers and physicists from the future will probably say the same about Einstein and all of us
The title of the video grabbed me (yeah, I'm a Trek fan) and I only planned to watch a few moments of it...but instead I found myself engrossed in the history and the way you presented it and ended up staying all the way to the end. Very well done video.
You weren't initially angry that they dared deny the reality of Spock's home planet?
Same. Trek fan here expecting someone to explain why "Vulcan has no moon," or something else about the fictional planet.
@@RadicalCaveman Well, kinda :D
Vulcan got imploded.
The headline is in a way accurate.
Peace and long life to all.
Re: Vulcan: It's dead Jim
This is my first Zepherus video, and it's extremely entertaining and engaging. I love how relaxed and conversational it was, while still having wit and playful callbacks. Time for an archive binge, you earned yourself a subscription.
This is the best video essay I've ever seen. The amount of research you put into this, conveying really complicated information (literal astrophysics) in a simple & straightforward way, over a span of 45 minutes without it ever slowing down or getting tedious is amazing. The editing; the script; the factuality; everything about this video is perfect. Wow
Hbomberguy, Wisecrack and Sci Man Dan have all covered flat earth
Best bit: "you can't make me" ^_^
I didn’t expect the phrase "Le Yoink" in a serious science video and it made me laugh so hard
yeh and a few minutes later it showed "Le Hmmm" XD
That's because this isn't a "serious science" video... 🤷♂️
"Why is Uranus acting differently?" I'm a pathetically simple man.
From Futurama:
Farnsworth: "We changed the name of that planet."
Fry: "What do you call it now?"
Farnsworth: "Urectum."
I gotta be honest, I admire his restraint. I would not have been able to resist at least one wink-wink nudge-nudge joke.
“Like mercury, Uranus was misbehaving”
"You will see sir, I will demonstrate that it is impossible to satisfy the [conditions] of Uranus."
You need more fiber in your diet.
I remember when I was young, there was an entire episode of Arthur C Clarke's mysterious world devoted to Vulcan. His final conclusion was that 'Vulcan _may_ have existed, but if it did, it almost certainly doesn't any more.
Nowadays, I think it's pretty absolute that it _never_ existed, but it was interesting how long the existence of this planet fascinated Mankind for...
Edit: Found it!
/watch?v=1-GQuOtu4S8&ab_channel=GoodOl%27Stuff
Woah, surprised this passed me by. Thanks for letting me know!
You’re missing the first bit of the link
@@eggyt1153that's intentional so that youtube doesn't mistake them for a bot, at least I assume it is
@@dooplon5083 ah
The question is mostly "when". If anything existed inside the orbit of Mercury it most likely ceased to exist long before life on earth figured out how to assemble blocks into eukarotic cells
Dear sir. I am a science and math idiot. I majored in English and went into law specifically to avoid having to take even one more math or science class after high school. This video appeared in my YT suggestion list because I have been binging Star Trek video essays for the last several weeks. The title intrigued me.
So imagine my surprise (shock, really) to find myself literally sitting on the edge of my seat, leaning forward for 45 minutes as you explained the history of this “lost” planet. Even more shocking, I UNDERSTOOD IT. I freaking understood the concept of Newton’s gravitational law and Einstein’s theory. Couldn’t calculate it or even explain it to anyone else, but I followed your whole video.
Your explanation, your delivery, and your illustrations are phenomenal. I’m 50+ years old and for the first time, I get it. I hardly ever write comments, but, here you are.
Thank you for this. This video is a masterpiece.
"Why is Uranus acting differently?"
Top 10 things you don't want to hear your doctor say
Mercury was misbehaving, like Uranus
@@batatanna
OP said "doctors" not "astronomers" - they meant it in some "other" way 😏
Top ten things you don’t want to hear Juno say also
I was hoping for this kind of comment. :3
And there I was glorying in the fact that he could use the traditional pronunciation of that planet with this audience and not raise an eyebrow...
And yet this audience still manages to make a joke about it that is still intelligent and shows an appropriate level of education ;-)
Your account leaves Le Verrier looking like a decent scientist, which is nice to see. He seems to have genuinely followed an honest approach to his hypotheses. And then we still have the unexplained sightings, and another honest man, the doctor. An intriguing story, all round.
I'm putting this out there.
UFOs are real.
And worst case scenario.
We have space travel and invisible technology as just humans.
I doubt it was just human innovation but if it was. We can do it.
.
So take it how u want.
.
I saw a ufo.
Was it government or aliens?
v'-'v
Idk but it was advanced and not an airplane.
.
Had a couple other experiences but none as clear as that one.
.
There's a strange light in the west or south west. It seems like a very bright star but not one I've ever seen.
I've seen a planets shine and that object gives off planet vibes.
.
The ufo I saw dispeared in the direction that light has caught my notice.
.
Now the ufo sighting was like 3-5 years ago. This light is something I noticed this year
So like salt take it lightly but if anyone knows more I'd happy to listen.
What if the spot doc man saw was just a fly or a smudge on his scope?
@@kingjad9416 the most epic troll and 10/10 something a fly would do to someone.
@@dandywaysofliving why are you talking?
@@kingjad9416 why does it matter, you're not in charge of me.
😏
Even though this was uploaded 9 months ago. I was just so happy you updated. You always produce such quality content and it is hard to believe thay your initial videos were from 5 years ago. Power and I hope you are doing what you love.
Zep's subs: "The magic words boss"
"we've been waiting 3 years to hear it"
Zepherus: "Kept you waiting, huh?"
WHOOOAAAHOOOWWW
Punished Zepherus
You're pretty good.
Age hasn't slowed you down one bit.
Vulcan's just shy because so many people keep trying to spot him. There's a reason he mostly stays in his forge (the sun). He was just getting out for a bit to stretch his leg.
The good one.
as someone who has been an astronomy fan for all of her life, I love this video so much. you somehow managed to make me invested in a planet that I already know didn’t exist.
nice pfp
@@theangrygrunt1481
thank you so much, you have an amazing pfp as well.
How far do you squirt?
@@ConnieCrow fellow nikos
For me, anyone with a Niko pfp or any Oneshot pfp emanates Gigachad energy
“He was vain, often arrogant, rude and was by most accounts a pretty difficult person to work with”
Sounds like literally every university lecturer/professor I’ve ever known
Sounds like my brother!
Or liberal.
@@toddkurzbard there was literally no reason to include politics in this
@@pianonian7314 liberals live rent free in their mind, a fact that I suspect they arent all too happy about
@@pianonian7314 triggered
"Vulcan" might have been a captured comet nucleus in a decaying orbit around the sun. It may have been several dying cometary bodies that were mistaken as a single planet.
It is likely that they've spotted PH27
An Asteroid that orbits quite close to the Sun
But has no effects to Mercury
I think it was all atmospheric, clouds, and so on. It was spotted as a dark disk transiting over minutes across the disk of the sun, by amateurs who didn't have training in atmospheric distractions.
Might have been an Alien Space Ship (from Vulcan lol)
The broken, burning body of an aztec god, torn apart by archangels.
@@hevendor958 PH27 is only a kilometer wide. Too small to be observed in any meaningful way other than maybe a small dot that zipped around the sun unusually fast.
There actually is something closer to the sun than mercury. It's an asteroid called PH27 although it's probably too small to be what people thought vulcan was.
could the amateur astronomers see that?
With a diameter of about 1km - impossible.
It is only closer to the sun for part of its orbit.
@GRAPHENE IS IN THE MASKS, SWABS and PCR TESTS!!!
I beg you to be a troll account.
@GRAPHENE IS IN THE MASKS, SWABS and PCR TESTS!!! You should try looking past your own nose pal
I thought him making a video about a lighthouse and keeping my interested for 26 minutes was impressive...but here's a video where I learn about nothing and it keeps me entertained for 45...
How did this guy comment before the upload time?
@@attheratehandle we got discord early access
@@LainUwU noiceee
You learnt nothing?
@@attheratehandle wait he’s right wtf
I love this video so much. I've watched it the whole way through at least 10 times. Everytime it shows up in my recommended videos my immediate thought upon seeing the thumbnail is always, "Oh!! I love this video!" And when it starts up I always get really exicted to absorb all the information again and refresh all of it. I love this video.
"If you ignore what might be inconvenient to calculate"
Engineers: 🌝
@Trav that's a throwback and a fuckin half right there
"A beam of negligible mass"
e=3=pi=sqrt(10)
The same methodology underlies the "Nemesis" theory, that there is a large but as yet undiscovered object beyond the Oort Cloud, whose orbit occasionally pushes unusual numbers of ice chunks towards the inner Solar System, some of which eventually hit Earth and cause mass extinctions.
I'm not advocating that theory, just mentioning that its basic argument is similar.
Nemesis is intriguing. That a dwarf star exists as a binary to our sun. Most solar systems are binary so it would make some sense.
Last I read, analyses make it doubtful. But there are some theories that it did once exist (maybe was stripped away by another passing solar system).
Such an interesting idea
it's actually Cthulhu.
@@alaskanmooseman5975 There is another theory that roughly every 50,000 to 75,000 another solar system gets close enough to kick things towards the inner solar system, based on some observations of single transit stellar objects and observations of Oumuamua and interstellar object candidates.
@@Tuberuser187 And of course, Planet 9, which through orbital resonance, has shifted some very distant Keiper belt objects, including some dwarf planets, at a 90 degree angle to the solar plane. P9's orbit is meant to be about 95 astronomical units from the Sun at the closest point, and nearly 1000 at it's furthest, and takes about 20,000 years to orbit. It is theorized to be about 5-10 Earth masses; a small "ice giant" like it's sibling Neptune.
The reasoning is quite solid and there hasn't been a convincing counter theory for those unusual Keiper belt object orbits.
Bit off topic but I love the study of those extremely distant, tiny worlds, almost beyond our ability to find. Maybe James-Webb?
I think it’s a grapefruit sized black hole,if there is something out there.Makes sense why we wouldn’t be able to catch a view of it for hundreds of years.
First time viewer, long time astronomy lover. I thought everything about this video was fabulous: organization, presentation, CGP Grey references, general humor, animation, everything. Thank you so much for the obviously huge amount of effort that you put into this video!
CPG Grey reference is literally 1 second lol.
24:19 According to the Wiki page for Vulcan (something added after the publication of this video), the existence and name of Vulcan was proposed by Jacques Babinet in 1846 (it cites Baum & Sheehan's book "In Search of Planet Vulcan", page 156). The famous Hall Colby map was submitted to Library of Congress on the 8th of October, 1846. So it is possible that Hall Colby heard about the speculation and included it in his map. If you look at planetary maps from the time, it is not unusual to find non-existent or yet-to-be-discovered moons and other minor objects. I guess people were so used to all new discoveries being correct, that they felt they erred on the side of caution by including them all.
Not gonna lie, I clicked on this video thinking it was another trekkie culture video taking a deep dive into Star Trek Lore about Vulcan and First Contact, etc. But this was way better than what I was expecting. You did a superb job making all of that (what I'm certain was) tedious research about Vulcan-mania, Le Verrier, and astronomy very understandable to someone like me whose last formal astronomy lesson was in high school 10+ years ago. Excellent work! I would definitely love to see more videos like this. Maybe some on biology theories that were popular and disproved by one rival camp or another. Or psychology. So many possibilities that I'm sure you'd do well with. Thanks for teaching me something I never knew!
"..beyond Uranus, and unnoticed by arse" 8:19 **giggle**giggle**
I should probably grow up.
I was a bit saddened to not hear a bit about the similar situation that played out with Pluto- how Tombaugh found it looking for yet another planet to solve problems with the gas giants' orbits, similarly to how the Vulcan-Mercury situation played out. Still an excellent video- it's great to see scientific discovery put into a cohesive narrative like this.
I really recommend the channel Parallax Nick if that’s what you’re into. He’s an exceptional storyteller who recounts historical tales of astronomy
This was absolutely awesome. A deep dive into an area of history I never heard of before. I love how you even went into the social movement of it. Great stuff.
I was completely enthralled by the video up until "On a good day, you can see Uranus with the naked eye" at 20:45
Sometimes I'm amazed what the algorithm comes up with to suggest to me. This was worth watching every second!
Watched the previous videos of his a long long time ago, I'm surprised YT even remembered I did that after several years, and immediately recommending this one.
Honestly, I am not even sure how I got here...
8:03 "Why is Uranus acting differently?" **childish giggles**
Oh shit
Diet is everything...🤣🤣
The fact that nobody wants to name a celestial body in the universe “Vulcan” to ignore the non-existing planet is just stupid to me.
Vulcan was reserved indefinitely, just in case there's anything closer to the Sun than Mercury is. these days, instead of a planet, the Vulcanoids are a hypothesized asteroid group whose mere existence or absence would provide tons of information about how the planets were formed.
@@rin_etoware_2989 I would rather put that name on an asteroid than a planet then, you have a good take there!
I mean who really cares what they call new planets anyway
If people cared about naming planets Kepler 22b would probably have a cool name.
There's an exoplanet nicknamed vulcan
This is really interesting considering that later there would be a similar mania about a supposed "Planet X" that would explain Uranus's orbit; followed by an assumption that the newly discovered Pluto was that Planet X; followed by increasing evidence that Pluto couldn't possibly be Planet X, thus leaving the mystery open again; followed by discoveries that resolved the mystery without any need for a Planet X. Think you'll ever do a video on that?
Not sure if you've seen that video as well, but a channel called geographic actually did a pretty interesting video on "planet X". If you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it.
@@femkevankeulen853 thanks for the recommendation! I didn't know that he did one on planet x.
"On a good day you can see Uranus with the naked eye"
A good day indeed
A good night, in fact... way off Hawaii on a trimaran. With no hurricanes.
I can't bend that far
No u can't no one has eyes like that
@GRAPHENE IS IN THE MASKS, SWABS and PCR TESTS!!! This makes for great satire, not gonna lie :))
I love this. Kept the mention of rivalries and egos to a the absolute minimum and just told the story about the planets' calculated orbits. Restricting the vocabulary and astronomy jargon for tautology and consistency was a good call too. Finally, the math is interesting without being overcomplicated. Thanks for making this video and translating a lot of French to do it
Man, I'm currently watching all of your videos. Your narration style is so good I wish you'd upload more often. But with this kind of quality, I'm willing to wait :) I hope whatever you have next in store is equally good!
Me: "I'm not going to watch a 45 minute video on a planet that does not exist", 45 minutes later... also me: "wow that was really interesting".
“Watch the Sun, very, very, closely …” ~ Le Verrier
That’s some great advice … 👍🏼😎👍🏼
yeah.....not a great advice to give in 17th century 2 centuries before invention of sunglasses
Make sure you have a very good solar filter and welder’s glasses.
*2 weeks later
"I watched so close I cant see shit now!
The fact that the timeline says it happened after the carrington event makes it even better
"Way ahead of you." --Newton
"Keeps physicists from going outside". Lol. How true. Also, the "le Hmmmm" had me cracking up.
Thought that comment was for covid19 but not.
As a French person, adding "le" in front of English words or onomatopeas is funny 100% percent of the time
Hahahaha. Laughed out loud at this!!
THERE'S ONE!
Le hmmmmm
I wonder if any of those possible ‘sightings’ of Vulcan were actually stray comets or asteroids or something. An amateur at least may mistake one for a small planet. One time transits.
Really interesting video!
Problem is the transits were weirdly regular/irregular. Either the object was temporarily trapped for a specific amount of time and either eventually collapsed or slingshot into the darkness. Not all observations could have been fake. This is a really interesting mystery
@@sushanthadusumilli1067 I suppose there are two ways to answer this: Determine how likely such alignments are, or look at historical solar observations from SOHO or SDO to determine how often anomalous black spots transit the Sun. You would need some sort of computer program to thoroughly analyze the terabytes upon terabytes of data from decades of solar observation, but it's doable. You would think at this point someone would have looked into the matter, but if my personal research into other 19th century astronomical mysteries has taught me anything, it's that modern astronomy hardly cares about pre-astrophysics astronomy.
This was one of those sorts of videos I thought I'd flick through to get the jist of things but actually ended up watching every second, totally entranced. Keep up the good work!
It's so weird to hear the talk about Vulcan having been considered a real planet when the only place I had heard the name before was Star Trek and therefore always thought the name was made up. It is interesting tho, that the series creators decided still to call Spock's homeworld that, as a nod to an interesting controversy of the astronomy community.
Did you never get to read any stories of Roman and Greek mythology? If so, that's too bad.
Vulcan, to the Romans, Hephaestus to the Greeks, was the smith to the gods. Among the perfect figures the gods present, he was crippled, a little misshapen. He was also the husband to Venus/Aphrodite, so there's some humor or irony to him. But he was strong, as befits a smith.
@@theBaron0530 We did learn Greek mythology more in depth and touched Roman mythology only on surface. The only main thing I remembered from Roman mythology was that it was copied from the Greeks and that was that. If the name Vulcan was ever mentioned, I guess I just forgot it lol.
@@theBaron0530 well that surely brought back some memories from God of war
@@kellirandoja As a quick aside Vulcan's name is where the word volcano comes from, for obvious reasons. It was thought that volcanic eruptions were caused by Vulcan smithing divine weapons.
I've always wondered why the late sf author James Blish would repeatedly mention in some of his novelizations of classic Star Trek episodes that the planet of Mr. Spock's origin ought not to be confused with "the Solar planet of the same name."
"Spoiler warning: Vulcan doesn't exist."
To be fair, people had approximately 170 years to read up on the current data, so, _i think we're good. :P_
Well to be fair, the people that believe in planets like Vulcan or Nibiru don't care about data; they want to believe their little doomsday conspiracy theories.
@@2yoyoyo1Unplugged Yeah like catastrophic man-made climate change or a mutant supervirus that will cull the planet...
@@SepticFuddy Nice bait, but nobody thinks Covid is gonna “cull the planet.” We just don’t wanna get sick if we can avoid it, and the virus is stubborn.
@@2yoyoyo1Unplugged a lot of people think Covid was created as a means to population control.
I can't throw out statistics here but I know enough people hooked on conspiracies to say it has a healthy following from all backgrounds regardless of education and skill level.
I just want to be clear that yes, it is utter nonsense.
@@Chef_Alpo Oh, i’m aware. I weep for mankind.
Miss this guy
HOLY SHIT! Just yesterday I was looking through my UA-cam subscribtion list, and thought to myself: "So sad that Zepherus stopped uploading, he made awesome stuff." So happy that you decided to return!
Honestly, the discarded and disproven scientific theories of yesteryear are really interesting. I wouldn´t mind if there was more content like that. Editing was top notch by the way.
TIL there are names on the Eiffel Tower
Also oh my God you're back!
Yeah, it's been a while. Got there in the end though.
PS: 41:21
@@Zepherus Ha! Missed that the first time 😄
@@Zepherus
Hello
@@Zepherus Friendly Advice: Collabs usually help a channel grow.
@@Zepheruswere the Romans aware of the planet Neptune?
Vulcan: The planet that didn’t exist
Pluto: First time?
Wow the video is so interesting and well made! I love how it doesn't have annoying sound effect or background music so I can focus on the context itself. Really enjoyed watching
I wonder if Le Verrier's chemistry career had worked out, would he have made a major contribution to that too.
Thank you SO MUCH for explaining why relativity was such a big deal in a way that I could understand, and for explaining its contents in a few sentences
I did some digging on the map at 24:28. The map was created by Hall Colby in 1846 and then a physical model/orrery was said to have been made in 1847. and the model is said to have been seen by notable people in NY like Chester Dewey, and William L Hudson. Who made comments about its uses as a teaching tool. There is no mention of Vulcan anywhere....... this is all from Hall Colby's own book in 1859 (Improved Nautical Almanac, or True Navigator). So i think the map is real but somone altered it to add Vulcan later on.
Coming to watch this video one year later. Still one of my favorite videos on this platform. So informative and engaging. The tale of the planet that never existed is one of the most interesting science tales I've ever seen
This is the first video of yours that I've seen, and it is incredibly well-produced. I loved how each chapter was separated by a view of the eclipse, finally culminating in a chapter about the eclipse itself. Very slick.
I'm looking forward to checking out your other videos!
when the world needed him the most, he returned...
And how can this be? For he is the Kwisatz Haderach!
@@yshwgth I just rewatched the older Dune last night! Wild comment!
Where was he
'I'm a little rusty" he said releasing an absolute BANGER and his best work yet
I loved this one, thanks for picking up where you left off and delivering a massive work of such high quality
Always good to see history of science presented and explained in an engaging way, to show the _process_ by which scientists over the centuries have moved, including false paths and interpretations that turned out to be wrong, because that is part of the progressive method of science: recognizing incongruities, admitting mistakes & learning from them, discarding falsified hypotheses, working with other scientists and incorporating new data to come up with a more robust interpretation of natural phenomena.
I wish more schools had the time to include history of science their curriculum instead of presenting scientific findings as a sort of rote learning or dogma. Because once science is presented as a sort of dogma, it's easy for religious fundamentalists and postmodernists to claim that robust scientific Theories well-supported by evidence are merely "theories" (as in, mere ideas or opinion or belief, as the phrase _"I have a theory_ is used in colloquial English).
And once science is demoted to mere "opinion" or "belief", as equally "true" as all other opinions out there, it can then be dismissed as something "scientists made up" for nefarious reasons [insert whatever pseudo-science or anti-science conspiracy theory fad is trending here], or worse, as heresy against religious dogma.
It's funny, considering Star Trek. The writers of the show must have been aware of this non-existent planet contraversy and reused the fake planet name as an "Easter egg".
Just as likely they simply named a planet after a god
Doctor Who used it as well, in "Power of the Daleks"...😅😁
Was wondering the same
The Star Trek planet is described as very hot and dry, matching Vulcan's (the god's) attributes. There's no relation to the theorised planet.
Speaking in-universe, it's only the Terran/English nickname, anyway. The residents have their own name for their home.
I was thinking the same thing throughout! I really want to go back to the old Star Trek and look for little science easter eggs now! I just don’t want to see William Shatner make out with green blobs. At least Sir Patrick Lewis wasn’t such a man-whore. ;)
It’s funny how much knowledge is lost with time: there were so many things written into songs, shows, and popular culture that push the human knowledge bar further, but with all the other “creative” ideas we have mixed-in the good gets lost with the bad leaving only veritable facts that survive for generations to get acknowledged. But even those, like the science of the ancient cultures will eventually be lost. There is just so much to know.
The geeky jokes in this vid made it so amazing.
Let’s just not be idiots and fall back into another dark age due to pestilence. Be safe and be smart people.
I hadn’t heard of the planet Vulcan (outside of Star Trek) before watching this video. Honestly I’m ashamed about that, calling myself an astronomy nerd. Anyway, amazing video. I hope to see more of you in the future!
Stayed subscribed for nearly 4 years in the hopes of seeing another video, and you really delivered. Amazing and informative video, it was 40 minutes very well spent. I hope to see more in the future :)
I think the IAU didn't go with Vulcan because there would be too much confusion with vulcanoids, which are hypothetical asteroids swinging around Sol inside Mercury's orbit. Lescarbault's sighting might have been of one.
Also, Vulcan is a god in his own right. God of the forge. He deserves a planet of his own.
Well, Ceres is the goddess of the harvest, Pluto the god of the underworld. Things don't always work out like we think they should. And if you say those were assumed to be planets at the time(you'd be correct) what about Vesta?
@@dominiklehn2866 - Ceres and Vesta are pretty substantial; they're easily the size of some of the gas giants' moons.
@@corgiw7281 was Vesta assumed to be a planet at one point (i don't remember now but i think i looked a bit into it when making the comment)
@@dominiklehn2866 - I'd have to go digging myself.
> Lescarbault's sighting might have been of one
I've just done a post about this. Even if there are any Vulcanoids, it's generally accepted that they would have been too small for C19th telescopes to pick up. The same goes for confirmed objects like 2021 PH27 which spend at least part of their orbit in the sub Mercurial zone.
Bloody hell, this is a well-constructed and entertaining essay. I hope you will make more, but if you get backlogged, just know that you introduced an astronomy buff to something he never even heard of before. Really, really well done. Cheers.
Amazing archievement hey ?
32:57 "Falling out of love with a pet project for a couple of years? Completely foreign to me".. Nice touch. Fantastic video btw, well put together.. New sub for sure.
10:20 "Mercury was missbehaving, just like Uranus was" I died
In some way the whole debacle with Vulcan might've been helpful in surprising ways. The extra news coverage and hype it generated must've brought it into Einstein's attention and if not directly helped him form the theory, at least give him an easy pointer to prove his theory to greater audiences with a very famous example case.
It's unlikely, since Einstein was not born yet or much too young (born in 1879). In 1917, when he presented his model of gravitation, he was 38 years old. He was most likely well aware of the Vulcan idea. But the problem of Mercury's orbit was too big for astronomers to ignore anyway; Vulcan would have been a distraction. And he won his Nobel Prize on another matter completely (the photoelectric effect), a contribution to quantum physics. Einstein is unique for his huge contributions to two fields of physics that don't fit with each other: general relativity and quantum mechanics. He is famous for his relativity theories, but his better known, in the general population, applied contributions revolve around quantum physics.
Gone for 3 years and didn't miss a beat - this video was phenomenal. So glad I finally know the full story of this thing, I've heard bits about it for years!
I can't believe I just sat through 45mins of maths, I loved it.
So well put together and loved the little sprinkle of humor too.
This video is very susprisingly well-made. I like the way you makes it not as boring as other vids are by putting interesting fonts and most importantly, the perfect visualisation, followed with your speaking tone haha. Yeah I watched it till' the very end and I totally think you deserve more subs, anyways, one from me!
The Zepherus Cinematic Universe grows larger! Welcome back man! I rewarched your Lighthouse video a few months ago and was hoping you'd return soon.
Share this video here!
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I think a key element in why this persisted so long is that, well, observations were still pretty sketchy at the time. photographic plates were not being used in astronomy yet, so you basically had a short period of time to make an eyeball observation and log it. even with experienced people, that makes validation very difficult.
Yep. Like The Canals of Mars that had us gearing up for war lol. Cuz that's what you did when you discovered new civilizations, I guess.
First of all, I'm positively surprised you managed to capture my brain's short attention span, and since I have a great lack of knowledge on this subject. Your narration is incredible, I managed to stay hooked through the entire thing while somewhat understanding the explanations you give (mostly the historical parts rather than the astrological ones).
It's my first video from you and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I'm gonna go binge watch your past content while waiting for more uploads! It's definitely worth the wait :D
I love this channel so much. I feel like zeph and I are kindred spirits. everything he posts is like right up my alley