Ceres (dwarf planet): Difference between revisions

The idea that an undiscovered planet could exist between the orbits of [[Mars]] and [[Jupiter]] was first suggested by [[Johann Elert Bode]] in 1768.<ref name="hoskin" /> His considerations were based on the so called [[Titius–Bode law]], a now-abandoned theory which had been proposed by [[Johann Daniel Titius]] in 1766.<ref name="hoskin" /><ref name="Hogg1948">{{cite journal|last=Hogg|first=Helen Sawyer|title=The Titius-Bode Law and the Discovery of Ceres|journal=Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada|volume=242|pages=241&ndash;246|year=1948| url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1948JRASC..42..241S}}</ref> This law predicted a semi-major axis near 2.8 [[Astronomical unit|AU]] for the planet.<ref name="Hogg1948" /> [[William Herschel]]'s discovery of [[Uranus]] in 1781<ref name="hoskin" /> increased faith in the law of Titius and Bode, and in 1800, they sent requests to twenty-four experienced astronomers, asking that they combine their efforts and beganbegin a methodical search for the proposed planet.<ref name="hoskin" /><ref name="Hogg1948" /> The group was headed by [[Franz Xaver von Zach]], editor of the ''Monatliche Correspondenz''. While they did not discover Ceres, they later found several large [[asteroid]]s.<ref name="Hogg1948" />