Editing Vulcanoid (section)

==Significance==

Vulcanoids, being an entirely new class of celestial bodies, would be interesting in their own right,<ref name=Campins/> but discovering whether or not they exist would yield insights into the [[formation and evolution of the Solar System]]. If they exist they might contain material left over from the earliest period of planet formation,<ref name=Dryden/> and help determine the conditions under which the [[terrestrial planets]], particularly Mercury, formed.<ref name=Campins/> In particular, if vulcanoids exist or did exist in the past, they would represent an additional population of impactors that have affected no other planet but Mercury,<ref name=Chapman/> making that planet's surface appear older than it actually is.<ref name=Campins/> If vulcanoids are found not to exist, this would place different constraints on planet formation<ref name=Campins/> and suggest that other processes have been at work in the inner Solar System, such as [[planetary migration]] clearing out the area.<ref name=Evans/>