Giuseppe Piazzi discovered at the exact indicated distance a very small planet 485 miles across which he named series by 1804 the number of asteroids small planets found there rose to four today nearly three thousand asteroids have been counted orbiting the Sun in what is now called the asteroid belt beyond any doubt this is the debris of a planet that had shattered to pieces Russian astronomers have named it Phaeton chariot while astronomers are certain that such a planet existed they are unable to explain its disappearance