Phaeton (hypothetical planet) Only in 1949 did the well-known Soviet astronomer Sergej Vladirimovich Orlov give it the name Phaeton... This name has become established." Theories regarding the formation of the asteroid belt from the destruction of a hypothetical fifth planet are today collectively referred to as the "disruption theory". This theory states that there was once a major planetary member of our solar system circulating in the present gap between Mars and Jupiter, which was variously destroyed when: Today, the Phaeton hypothesis has been superseded by the accretion model. Most astronomers today believe that the asteroids in the main belt are remnants of
IAU definition of planet planets. Mike Brown, the discoverer of Sedna and Eris, has said that at least 53 known bodies in the Solar System probably fit the definition, and that a complete survey would probably reveal more than 200. The definition would have considered a pair of objects to be a double planet system if each component independently satisfied the planetary criteria and the common center of gravity of the system (known as the "barycenter") was located outside of both bodies. Pluto and Charon would have been the only known double planet in the Solar System. Other planetary satellites (like Earth and its