![\"Artist's](\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/vulcan-1280.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>The discovery<\/h3>\n
A planet thought to orbit the star 40 Eridani A \u2013 host to Mr. Spock\u2019s fictional home planet, Vulcan, in the \u201cStar Trek\u201d universe \u2013 is really a kind of astronomical illusion caused by the pulses and jitters of the star itself, a new study<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n The possible detection of a planet orbiting a star that Star Trek made famous drew excitement and plenty of attention when it was announced in 2018. Only five years later, the planet appeared to be on shaky ground when other researchers questioned whether it was there at all. Now, precision measurements using a NASA-NSF instrument, installed a few years ago atop Kitt Peak in Arizona, seem to have returned the planet Vulcan even more definitively to the realm of science fiction.<\/p>\n Two methods for detecting exoplanets \u2013 planets orbiting other stars \u2013 dominate all others in the continuing search for strange new worlds. The transit method, watching for the tiny dip in starlight as a planet crosses the face of its star, is responsible for the vast majority of detections. But the \u201cradial velocity\u201d method also has racked up a healthy share of exoplanet discoveries. This method is especially important for systems with planets that don\u2019t, from Earth\u2019s point of view, cross the faces of their stars. By tracking subtle shifts in starlight, scientists can measure \u201cwobbles\u201d in the star itself, as the gravity of an orbiting planet tugs it one way, then another. For very large planets, the radial velocity signal mostly leads to unambiguous planet detections. But not-so-large planets can be problematic.<\/p>\n Even the scientists who made the original, possible detection of planet HD 26965 b \u2013 almost immediately compared to the fictional Vulcan \u2013 cautioned that it could turn out to be messy stellar jitters masquerading as a planet. They reported evidence of a \u201csuper-Earth\u201d \u2013 larger than Earth, smaller than Neptune \u2013 in a 42-day orbit around a Sun-like star about 16 light-years away. The new analysis, using high-precision radial velocity measurements not yet available in 2018, confirms that caution about the possible discovery was justified.<\/p>\n The bad news for Star Trek fans comes from an instrument known as NEID, a recent addition to the complex of telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory. NEID, like other radial velocity instruments, relies on the \u201cDoppler\u201d effect: shifts in the light spectrum of a star that reveal its wobbling motions. In this case, parsing out the supposed planet signal at various wavelengths of light, emitted from different levels of the star\u2019s outer shell, or photosphere, revealed significant differences between individual wavelength measurements \u2013 their Doppler shifts \u2013\u00a0and the total signal when they were all combined. That means, in all likelihood, the planet signal is really the flickering of something on the star\u2019s surface that coincides with a 42-day rotation \u2013 perhaps the roiling of hotter and cooler layers beneath the star\u2019s surface, called convection, combined with stellar surface features such as spots and \u201cplages,\u201d which are bright, active regions. Both can alter a star\u2019s radial velocity signals.<\/p>\n While the new finding, at least for now, robs star 40 Eridani A of its possible planet Vulcan, the news isn\u2019t all bad. The demonstration of such finely tuned radial velocity measurements holds out the promise of making sharper observational distinctions between actual planets and the shakes and rattles on surfaces of distant stars.<\/p>\n Even the destruction of Vulcan has been anticipated in the Star Trek universe. Vulcan was first identified as Spock\u2019s home planet in the original 1960s television series. But in the 2009 film, \u201cStar Trek,\u201d a Romulan villain named Nero employs an artificial black hole to blow Spock\u2019s home world out of existence.<\/p>\n A science team led by astronomer Abigail Burrows of Dartmouth College, and previously of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, published a paper describing the new result, \u201cThe death of Vulcan: NEID reveals the planet candidate orbiting HD 26965 is stellar activity,\u201d<\/a> in The Astronomical Journal in May 2024 (Note: HD 26965 is an alternate designation for the star, 40 Eridani A.)<\/p>\n Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The discovery A planet thought to orbit the star 40 Eridani A \u2013 host to Mr. Spock\u2019s fictional home planet, Vulcan, in the \u201cStar Trek\u201d universe \u2013 is really a kind of astronomical illusion caused by the pulses and jitters of the star itself, a new study shows. Key facts The possible detection of a [\u2026] Continue reading Key facts<\/h3>\n
Details<\/h3>\n
Fun facts<\/h3>\n
The discoverers<\/h3>\n