Naming the planet closest to the sun after the roman god of fire seems appropriate. The problem: it doesn’t exist. When confronted with data of planetary movements that do not fit your calculations you have two options: your theory is wrong or there is some big object influencing the planetary motion that you did not take into account. Since the latter turned out to be the case once before - and led to the discovery of Neptune - you might want to go that route again. At least that was what Urbain Le Verrier did. To hear more about the search for the mysterious planet of Vulcan and what Einstein has to do with all this, listen to this week's episode of Good in Theory.

Created and produced by: Rita Neves and Sofie Ried

Intro/outro music: Andrew Glover

Folgen-ID: 1000745416241

GUID: af237b24-cb33-45fe-b28a-61b6272c3f45

Erscheinungs­datum: 15.1.2026, 07:00:00