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In the Star Trek universe, the beloved character Spock is native to the planet Vulcan. This planet is of course entirely fictional. however, Star Trek The producers eventually joined Vulcan to a real star near the Earth called 40 Eridani A. New observations revealed a planet in orbit of 40 Eridani A – our true Vulcan. The presence of sharp-eared aliens with green blood has not yet been confirmed.
At the beginning of Star Trek, no matter where exactly Vulcan was in the cosmos. All we needed to know was that it was close to Earth on a galactic scale. Later, the development of basic technical details required precise connections to the real world. In 2002, an officially licensed book called Star Trek: Star Charts pointed 40 Eridani A as Vulcan system. These graphs also showed in Star Trek: Company, which was broadcast on television at that time. This makes it canon in the universe of Star Trek.
In real life, the 40 Eridani A is slightly smaller and cooler than the sun, with an orange color. Only 16 light-years away, you can look in the sky and see 40 Eridani A without a telescope. The star is about the same age as the sun and has a similar pattern of sunspots. It could mean that his solar system is conducive to life.
The planet is a so-called super-Earth with a mass estimated at eight times that of our planet, which does not correspond to the reality of Vulcan to our knowledge. The exoplanet is also in orbit very close to its star with only 42 terrestrial years. 40 Eridani A is cooler than the sun, but astronomers still believe that the exoplanet will fall out of the habitable zone. Although, Vulcan itself was largely desert.
Astronomers with the Dharma Planet Survey have detected the planet via the radial velocity method. That we can deduce his presence of small oscillations in the star caused by the planet in orbit. It is not clear if the unnamed exoplanet passes in front of our star host from our point of view. If this is the case, we may be able to characterize its atmosphere and verify the physical characteristics.
An earlier study detected Something strange with the radial velocity of 40 Eridani A, but this team was unable to check a planet. The new study has additional data to make its case. But it's still only a candidate planet. More observations are needed. I think we can all agree that we need to name the planet "Vulcan" if other studies verify its presence around 40 Eridani A.
Now read: How to build a Star Trek: the next-generation mechanical keyboard, the real tricorders have been there for 230 years, thanks to the XPrize Tricorder, and scientists say that the closest exoplanet could be livable after all
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