Scientists Find 'Super-Earth' In Star System From 'Star Trek' (vice.com) 114
In a wonderful example of truth validating fiction, the star system imagined as the location of Vulcan, Spock's home world in Star Trek, has a planet orbiting it in real life. From a report: A team of scientists spotted the exoplanet, which is about twice the size of Earth, as part of the Dharma Planet Survey (DPS), led by University of Florida astronomer Jian Ge. It orbits HD 26965, more popularly known as 40 Eridani, a triple star system 16 light years away from the Sun. Made up of a Sun-scale orange dwarf (Eridani A), a white dwarf (Eridani B), and a red dwarf (Eridani C), this system was selected to be "Vulcan's Sun" after Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry consulted with astronomers Sallie Baliunas, Robert Donahue, and George Nassiopoulos about the best location for the fictional planet.
"An intelligent civilization could have evolved over the aeons on a planet circling 40 Eridani," Roddenberry and the astronomers suggested in a 1991 letter to the editor published in Sky & Telescope. The three stars "would gleam brilliantly in the Vulcan sky," they added. The real-life exoplanet, known as HD 26965b, is especially tantalizing because it orbits just within the habitable zone of its star, meaning that it is theoretically possible that liquid water -- the key ingredient for life as we know it -- could exist on its surface.
"An intelligent civilization could have evolved over the aeons on a planet circling 40 Eridani," Roddenberry and the astronomers suggested in a 1991 letter to the editor published in Sky & Telescope. The three stars "would gleam brilliantly in the Vulcan sky," they added. The real-life exoplanet, known as HD 26965b, is especially tantalizing because it orbits just within the habitable zone of its star, meaning that it is theoretically possible that liquid water -- the key ingredient for life as we know it -- could exist on its surface.
Vulcan eh (Score:2)
Except isn't this one a cold dead planet? Also it has like 8X the mass of Earth and 2X as big. How would gravity be there?
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8 times mass = 8 times gravity
2 times radius = 1/4 times gravity
product = 2 times gravity
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Which would make is residents rather strong compared to us. (or more likely much smaller as a fall from a humanoid frame with 2x gravity has a higher chance of breaking bones)
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You mean like how a Vulcan is supposed to be three times stronger than a human?
Also, I say name the planet "Nimoy".
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Slightly ameliorated if Vulcan's core is not iron/nickel. Earth's core contributes to its average mass of 5.5 g/cc. Mars has an average density of 3.9 g/cc, the Moon of 3.3 g/cc. (The density of Mercury and Venus is more like that of Earch.) There are questions about what the surface geology would be like on a planet with a core unlike Earth's: maybe no plate tectonics, no mineable concentrations of metals. The latter would presumably have an effect on the course of civilization of a hypothetical intelli
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It's on the hot side of the habitable zone, and if my understanding is correct, the higher gravity is likely to mean it has a large atmosphere and quite a greenhouse effect. I'm going to guess this one to be a super-Venus.
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Venus is smaller then earth, and has a lower gravity.
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It would be greater than Earth. That's why Vulcans are stronger than humans.
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I'd be more concerned about the white dwarf, the planet would need a hell of a magnetic field for the atmosphere to survive the nova that created that white dwarf.
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White dwarfs are not (usually) created by novas, they're just the end point of most stars, excepting the really massive, when they run out of fuel and collapse. There would have been a red giant phase probably which may not have been healthy to be around. Really depends on the mass of the star and since I didn't read the article...
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Re:Vulcan eh (Score:4, Informative)
Except isn't this one a cold dead planet? Also it has like 8X the mass of Earth and 2X as big. How would gravity be there?
It would be illogical to believe that a planet with 2X the gravity of earth could not sustain life.
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Life as we know it, Jim.
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Life as we know it, Jim.
Ye canna change the laws of physics, laws of physics, Jim.
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Also it has like 8X the mass of Earth and 2X as big. How would gravity be there?
"The planet is roughly twice the size of Earth". I've looked and looked, and CAN'T find anyone estimating the gravity of the planet. I presume they don't know.
My knee-jerk reaction was "twice the gravity" as well, but I think it's going to be 4x the gravity, because of radius and size and all. (inverse-square law.) In any case, here's an article about launching rockets from larger, heavier planets. Link, [stackexchange.com] pretty link. [space.com] It's not a happy story. At 10.4g, rocket mass is one fifth of the mass of the planet
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That would be perfect except the IAU already had a planet named Vulcan. It was thought to orbit inside of Mercury. Turns out Mercury just had a very elliptical orbit. Since they used it once, they typically wont use it again. Bummer.
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Perhaps they can call the planet "Krill" instead then.
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Actually it is relative affects caused by the Suns gravity that makes Mercury's orbit unpredictable with Newton mechanics and originally blamed on another planet. The first test of Einstein's theory was correctly plotting Mercury's orbit.
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That would be perfect except the IAU already had a planet named Vulcan. It was thought to orbit inside of Mercury. Turns out Mercury just had a very elliptical orbit. Since they used it once, they typically wont use it again. Bummer.
Maybe Vulcan will just end up being the Springfield of planets.
Fascinating. (Score:5, Funny)
There is actually a molecule that is 100% accurate (Score:4, Interesting)
When it comes to determining whether a planet has "life as we know it", there is exactly one molecule that MUST be present that is ONLY present as far as we know on Earth. We only found it here and it is absolutely mandatory to exist for life, at least for life as we know it.
Chlorophyll.
It's pretty much the only (ok, you nitpickers, there are two forms of it, but either would do, and both have only been found here, so shush) molecule that's capable of generating energy out of sunlight, and any kind of life that goes beyond single celled organisms depends directly or indirectly on being able to generate power from photosynthesis.
Re:There is actually a molecule that is 100% accur (Score:4, Informative)
Absolutely inaccurate.
We know so little about the kingdoms Bacteria and Archaea that rely on non photosynthetic processes that you cannot logically make that statement.
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Great, and once you find multicellular organisms that exist without photosynthesis coming into play, we'll talk.
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Yeah, bacteria sure are advanced life. Call when they got as far as tool use.
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Rabies works s.t. like this
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As noted by the AC there are millions of such colonies where non-photosynthetic life is fed by Archaea thermophiles up to an including multi-cellular animal life that survive by feeding on the archaea processing sulfur that we already know about and study.
You should look into this a little more rather than relying on your ill-informed assumption that photo-synthesis is required for life as that hasn't been accepted theory for more than 20 years. The Bacteria and Archaea domains are almost entirely unstudied
Re:There is actually a molecule that is 100% accur (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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Oxygen in an atmosphere can also mean that what's available to be oxidized is already in a more stable configuration, or would require a higher activation energy than is available, i.e. pressure or temperature too low to start the reaction or something else inhibiting it.
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.... and any kind of life that goes beyond single celled organisms depends directly or indirectly on being able to generate power from photosynthesis.
No. Just no.
You also seem to be placing a lot of emphasis on "it's only found here," when "here" is pretty much the only place we've really looked.
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Actually, we've been looking in other places. Chlorophyll is pretty easy to find, if it's present.
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For life as we know it, it's pretty much mandatory if you want to go beyond fairly primitive life forms.
A silicon based life form that uses solar cells probably would not qualify as life as we know it, and the life that forms around black smokers on the bottom of oceans doesn't exactly qualify as something we'd expect to build spaceworthy transports.
I for one welcome our Romulan overlords (Score:2)
What, you didn't realize they were still warlike?
book your trip now (Score:2)
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Douglas Adams (THGTTG):
Space (It says) is big. I mean really big! You wont believe how mind boggling big it is. You might thing is is a long way to your chemist, but that is just peanuts compared to space. Listen!
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The technology to make that happen is complete vaporware.
So was the technology for landing a man on the moon 60 years ago (ten years before Apollo 11). Former astronaut Dr. Mae Jeminson, who had a cameo on ST:TNG, advocates designing a starship in 100 years [100yss.org] to leave the solar system because the technology for that doesn't exist and would be more transformative than the technology that came out of the Apollo program.
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Why does anyone pay ANY attention to ANYTHING from FLORIDA?
Considering the state is overrun with things that want to kill me, eat me, or kill me and eat me (including the weather and the local humans) there is plenty of reason to pay attention to things that come from Florida. Now, whether or not there is any intelligent life in Florida is another question but there is definitely plenty of reason to pay attention to things that come from there.
Now that is settled... (Score:2)
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Ale? I was thinking more about green-skinned pole dancers :)
In a related story... (Score:5, Funny)
Stable Orbit around a Triple Star? (Score:2)
I am surprised that a planet around a triple star would have an orbit stable enough to last long enough for the "aeons" needed for life to evolve, unless so far out that the radius of its orbit was some orders of magnitude more than the maximum distance between the stars, in which case it might be too cold for life. Is that the case here?
In fact, unless the three stars form a spinning equilateral triangle, one of the stars must be much further away than the other two are from each other for the system to b
First Contact? (Score:2)
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Vger?
and yet.... (Score:2)
In a wonderful example of truth validating fiction, the star system imagined as the location of Vulcan, Spock’s home world in Star Trek, has a planet orbiting it in real life.
And yet....Vulcan's copper based blood was....green? I'm thinking this star having a planet is more of an educated guess panning out than any miracle validation.
The DHARMA Planet Survey???? (Score:2)
Shit, next we're going to find out that the planet is only inhabited by smoke monsters.
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Because that the only joke you've ever heard? Doesn't anyone have a sense of humor anymore?
Life needs two things (Score:4, Interesting)
I almost consider ... (Score:1)
.... this to be prophetic. Now we must work on that warp capable drive. Live long and prosper. \/
huh? (Score:2)
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Was Star Trek so parochial and small minded that the next humanoid race was only 16 light years away???? In the Star Trek Universe is every Goldilocks world "habited"?
Yes, many, many class M planets (originally a designation in the Vulcan lanugage) are filled with life. The Star Trek universe is filled with life similar enough to humans to make great stories, and life different enough to make fantastic stories. Some scifi universes had only humans (as the intelligent lifeforms), so the conflict was all internal to the human condition. In the Star Trek world, we see intra-human conflict as well as inter-species conflicts.
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(GOTO 10)
It's actually (GO 10) [clhs.lisp.se], you know...