This all seems like science and scientists getting the job done, a tale of scientific discovery and triumph, not cautionary.
The planet Vulcan: a cautionary tale (kevinboone.me)
29 pointsby andsoitis3 days ago4 comments
wat10000 12 minutes ago
I don't understand what makes this a cautionary tale. Observation didn't quite match theory. An entirely reasonable hypothesis was proposed: an undiscovered planet. Attempts were made to prove it by discovering said planet. They failed. Eventually, a genius came up with a new theory that explained the observation, and a whole lot of other stuff besides.
Hussell 4 minutes ago
"They failed." is incorrect. For several decades the consensus was that they'd succeeded, with a few dissenting voices. It wasn't until Einstein came up with a theory that perfectly explained the precession of Mercury that it became obvious that the "observations" were bogus. That's the part which should make you cautious, both when believing other people's observations and when making observations yourself.
jmclnx an hour ago
IIRC, there was the Planet X search ~100 years ago. Much later it was pointed out either there was a miscalculation of Neptune's mass or a slight issue with Newton's theory. Since then it we know that Planet X does not exist.
Now we have the search for Planet 9, details for both:
dominick-cc 32 minutes ago
I am hoping its a grapefruit sized black hole