Astronomers have detected that the planet HD 26965 b — known for inspiring Vulcanhome planet of Mr. Spock in “Star Trek” — may have been wrongly detected. A discovery published in the magazine The Astronomical Journal in May showed that, in reality, what was recorded could just be an effect caused by the tremors of the very star it orbits, the 40 Eridani A.
The planet was introduced in the series in 1960 and in the 2009 film “Star Trek”, the villain Nero destroys it using an artificial black hole. In the first identification of the celestial body that inspired Vulcan — when modern-day technologies were not yet available — it was detected that it would have an orbit of 42 days around its star and would be 16 light-years away from Earth.
To search for the planet, Neid was used, a spectrometer placed in a telescope that uses Doppler, analyzing the change in frequency or wavelength in relation to an observer. In this context, the signals emitted by different layers of the star were combined and astronomers identified that what was thought to be a planet coincides with a change in wavelengths that occurs with a frequency of 42 days.
The first identification of the supposed HD 26965 b was carried out using the transit method, which analyzes changes in the light coming from the star when a body passes in front of it — a technique used to discover the existence of exoplanets, the duration of their orbit and their size . In the new research, the planet was searched for using the radial velocity method, which measures the oscillation of the star’s gravity when the supposed planet “pulls” it from one side to the other.
According to the NASA statement, the spectrometer technology will be used to discover more information about the exoplanets discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess) and to identify targets for future missions.
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