On January 2, 1860, the discovery of the planet Vulcan was announced at a meeting of the Académie des Sciences in Paris by French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier. This announcement was based on observations made by physician and amateur astronomer Edmond Modeste Lescarbault, who claimed to have seen a transit of a previously-unknown planet in March of the previous year. Not to be confused with Spock’s home planet … Continue reading The Planet Vulcan, Pluto and New Horizons