Part 6/12:
As astronomers navigated this maze of classification, another planetary saga unfolded with the anticipation of a hypothetical planet—Vulcan. French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier, after the successful discovery of Neptune in 1846, posited the existence of a second planet influencing Mercury’s precessing perihelion. Le Verrier announced the discovery of Vulcan in 1859, following reported sightings of a dark spot traversing the Sun’s disk by amateur astronomer Edmond Lescarbault.