Fictional planets of the Solar System 40 Eridani A. Counter-Earth was a hypothetical planet sharing an orbit with Earth, but on the opposite side of the Sun (hence Earth and Counter-Earth would always be invisible to each other). The idea of a counter-Earth has never been a serious scientific hypothesis in modern times. Phaëton is a name given to a supposed planet existing in the past between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, which no longer exists, having become the Solar System's asteroid belt. Proposed not long after the discovery of multiple asteroids at the beginning of the 19th century, the idea that the asteroids were
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