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The American actor Leonard Nimoy in the role of Mr. Spock in the movie "Star Trek – The Motion Picture", 1979. (Photo by Bertil Unger / Evening Standard / Getty Images)
By Ben Warwick
ALPHA QUADRANT, EXTERIOR SPACE (CBS4) Scientists have just proved that Spock's fictional homeworld of Star Trek has a real equivalent.
A new investigation has discovered a new planet in the exact place where the planet Spock would have been.
Here is some information for non-Trekkies who read this.
Mr. Spock is from the fictional planet Vulcan. The star that the planet orbit has never been identified in the show, but the creator Gene Roddenberry and three astronomers wrote in 1991 a letter to Sky & Telescope Magazine explaining to astronomers where they thought Vulcan was located in the space. "We prefer the identification of 40 Eridani as Vulcan sun," the group writes.
40 Eridani is a real orange dwarf star, about 4 billion years old, pretty much like our sun. This, in the spirit of Roddenberry, would give an intelligent civilization such as that of the Vulcans to evolve.
"Vulcan is probably in orbit around the primary star, an orange dwarf of K1 spectral-type main sequence," they wrote.
Fast forward to 2018.
A new study of 40 Eridani shows that the star actually has a planet in its orbit, a planet about eight times larger than the Earth.
The planet is too close to the star to support life, although the planet is the most common type found in the galaxy.
Starfleet Command could not be reached for comment.
Ben Warwick is an assignment writer at CBS4 and is a native coloradan. He loves sports, especially baseball, and tells stories across the country. Connect with him on Twitter @ BenCBS4.
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