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A place to call home? The late Leonard Nimoy played the beloved Vulcan Mr. Spock in the Star Trek franchise.
Star Trek is science fiction. But sometimes, the boundaries between science fiction and real astronomy fade away, and this is the case in this story. The planet (fictional) Vulcan – the birthplace of the legendary Mr. Spock – was first connected to the (real) star 40 Eridani A in 1968, in James Blish's Star Trek 2. Among Star Trek fans, this star continued to be associated with Vulcan in the following decades. Then, in 1991, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and three astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Center (CfA) confirmed in a letter to Sky & Telescope magazine that 40 Eridani A could indeed be the host host of Vulcan. This month, a team of astronomers announced they discovered a (real) planet for 40 Eridani A.
The University of Florida astronomer, Jian Ge, who led the discovery team, wrote in a statement:
The new planet is a super-Earth orbiting the star HD 26965 [aka 40 Eridani A]which is only 16 light-years away from Earth, making it the nearest super-Earth orbiting another sun-like star.
The planet is about twice as large as the Earth and revolves around its star with a 42-day period just inside the optimal habitable zone of the star.
Astronomer Matthew Muterspaugh of the University of Tennessee, a member of the Discovery Team, added that this orange star:
… is slightly cooler and slightly less massive than our sun, is approximately the same age as our sun and has a 10.1 year magnetic cycle, almost identical to the 11.6 year sunspot cycle.
The newly discovered planet is the first super-Earth detected by the Dharma Planet Survey, which uses the 50-inch telescope atop the mount. Lemmon in southern Arizona. The objective of the investigation is to search for possibly habitable planets around the neighboring stars.
The star system 40 Eridani is composed of three stars. The newly discovered planet revolves around the primary star and, as pointed out by Roddenberry and the three CfA astronomers in their 1991 letter, the two companion stars:
… shone brightly in the Vulcan sky.
The astronomer Bo Ma of the University of Florida is the first author of the new article published in Monthly Notices from the Royal Astronomical Society. He commented:
This star can be seen with the naked eye, unlike the host stars of most known planets discovered to date. Now everyone can see 40 Eridani on a clear night and be proud to report Spock's house.
Learn more about SkyandTelescope.com: Discovery of the Super-Earth in a Vulgar (Fictitious) System This story explains why Roddenberry and CfA astronomers confirmed that 40 Eridani A was a good candidate for the local Spock star.
The artistic concept of the fictional planet Vulcan via StarTrek.com.
Bottom line: Astronomers have found a planet in the 40 Eridani A habitable zone, which many Star Trek fans have identified as Spock's star.
Source: The First Super-Earth Detection from the High-Precision Radar and High-Speed Radial Dharma Planet Survey
Via UFNews
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