Star Trek Planet Vulcan Is Real
University of FloridaAn artist’s rendering of what the newly discovered planet orbiting 40 Erdani A might look like.
In a nod to the Star Trek franchise, scientists at the University of Florida announced in September that they uncovered what could be considered the real-life planet Vulcan.
In the Star Trek universe, the Eridani constellation is the star system in which the planet Vulcan (where Spock and his fellow Vulcanians reside) is located. Eridani is based off the real-life constellation, 40 Eridani, and Vulcan was said to orbit the real-life star in that constellation, 40 Eridani A.
Scientists naturally wondered if a planet actually does orbit 40 Eridani A. Turns out, one does.
The exoplanet is about twice the size of Earth and is located 16 light-years away from the Sun. It also experiences years that are but 42 days long and is considered a “super-Earth,” or planet that resides beyond our solar system of a similar size to Earth’s. It is also the first discovery of its kind by the Dharma Planet Survey.
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, published a letter in Sky and Telescope magazine in July 1991 where he formally identified the star that the fictional planet Vulcan would orbit in real life. Roddenberry and members from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics identified the star 40 Eridani A as the would-be planet Vulcan host star.
This uncanny science news bodes well for Trekkies and fans of the extraterrestrial alike and is an optimistic indication that perhaps other Earth-like planets exist in similar habitable zones throughout the universe.
