Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Phaeton (hypothetical planet)" in English language version.
Olbers fleshed out the idea in a letter to William Herschel on May 17, 1802:
How might it be if Ceres and Pallas were just a pair of fragments, or portions of a once greater planet which at one time occupied its proper place between Mars and Jupiter, and was in size more analogous to the other planets, and perhaps millions of years ago, had, either through the impact of a comet, or from an internal explosion, burst into pieces?
The "science" in science-fiction of the Gernsback period was not wholly borrowed from the outside world. Some concepts were created on a mythical level. [...] Particularly interesting is the establishment of "Bodia" (according to one cosmology of the day, a former fifth planet whose destruction formed the asteroids) as the ultimate origin of mankind and possessor of a supercivilization.
Bode's Fifth Planet, "Bodia." (A hypothetical planet between Mars and Jupiter that broke up to form the asteroid belt. It is usually fictionally considered as Earth-like, with a human population.)
