The newly discovered planet could be Spock's homeworld, say astronomers

Among the television series Star TrekHis many charms are his rich universe of characters and planets. Now, the Dharma Planet Survey, in a new study by astronomer Jian Ge of the University of Florida and the team including astronomers Matthew Muterspaugh and Gregory Henry of Tennessee State University, has shown that science fiction was maybe a little less. the Dharma project has discovered what can be Star Trekfamous Vulcan planet.

"The new planet is a" super-Earth "gravitating around the HD 26965 star, just 16 light-years from Earth, making it the closest super-Earth orbiting around the world. another star. " "The planet is about twice the size of the Earth and revolves around its star with a 42-day period just inside the optimal habitable zone of the star." The discovery was made using the Dharma Endowment Foundation Telescope (DEFT), a 50-inch telescope located atop the mount. Lemmon in southern Arizona. The planet is the first "super-Earth" detected by the Dharma Survey.

"The orange HD 26965 is slightly colder and slightly less massive than our Sun. It is approximately the same age as our Sun and has a magnetic cycle of 10.1 years, almost identical to the Sun of 11.6 years. "says Muterspaugh. , who participated in the commissioning of the Dharma spectrograph on the TSU 2 meter automatic spectroscopic telescope. "Therefore," he adds, "HD 26965 could be an ideal host star for an advanced civilization."

"Star Trek fans can know the star HD 26965 by its alternative nickname, 40 Eridani A, "says Henry, who collected accurate measurements of the star's brightness at the automated TSU observatory needed to confirm the presence of the planet . the publications "Star Trek 2 "by James Blish (Bantam, 1968) and"Star Trek Maps "by Jeff Maynard (Bantam, 1980)," explains Henry. In a letter published in "Sky and Telescope" in July 1991, Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, with Sallie Baliunas, Robert Donahue and George Nassiopoulos of the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Center confirmed the identification of 40 Eridani A as the host of Vulcan. The star system 40 Eridani is composed of three stars. Vulcan revolves around the primary star, and the two companion stars "shone brightly in the Vulcan sky," they write in their 1991 letter.

"Vulcan is the original planet of the scientific agent Mr. Spock in the original"Star Trek"Sci-Fi series," says Henry. "Spock served in the Enterprise spacecraft, whose mission was to search out new strange worlds, a mission shared by the Dharma Planet Survey."

"This star can be seen with the naked eye, unlike the guest stars of most of the known planets discovered so far.Now everyone can see 40 Eridani on a clear night and be proud to show the house of Spock ", said Bo Ma. Post-doc UF on the team and the first author of the article has just appeared in Monthly Notices from the Royal Astronomical Society.

"This discovery demonstrates that fully dedicated telescopes driving high-speed, high-precision radial velocity observations in the near future will continue to play a key role in the discovery of super-Earths and even similar planets in nearby living areas." , "says Ge. "I am very grateful to the donor of our Dharma Planet Survey, Mr. Mickey Singer, who recognized the importance of this project and has continuously supported the realization of this discovery and future discoveries."

Explore more:
Mission could look for Spock's home planet

More information:
Bo Ma et al. The first super-Earth detection from high-speed precision and high radial velocity Dharma Planet Survey, Monthly Notices from the Royal Astronomical Society (2018). DOI: 10.1093 / mnras / sty1933

The first detection of super-Earth from the study of the planet Dharma Plan high rate and high radial velocity. arxiv.org/abs/1807.07098