Topic: Announcing the discovery of yet another extrasolar planet
Alpha Centauri
Usually seen somewhere in the Southern skies
Member # 338
posted
The 41st extrasolar planet is discovered. It's located at Epsilon Eridani, a K2V star, 600 million years young, and 10.7 lightyears from Earth. It's the nearest confirmed exoplanet so far.
posted
Isn't Epsilon Eridani where Vulcan is supposed to be?
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posted
Now we just need a starship with a warp drive.
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Alpha Centauri
Usually seen somewhere in the Southern skies
Member # 338
posted
Vulcan is supposed to be orbiting the trinary star Omicron-2 Eridani. Also known as 40 Eridani and located 15.7 lightyears away, this system consists of a K-class star half as faint as the Sol, with further in orbit a white dwarf and a red dwarf. But I don't believe the 40 Eridani-assumption is strictly canon. It was an idea proposed in fanfic, and is generally accepted now. The above stats on the system, come from todays astronomical research, and have never been mentioned in Trek.
Epsilon Eridani has only 30% of Sol's brightness. Being also a very young star, it is unlikely that there are indigenous intelligent civilizations by now. It is even so young, that its planetary system is still not fully condensed into real planets, so can be concluded by infrared observations by the 1980s 'IRAS' space telescope. It observed an excess of infrared radiation, appearently caused by dust shrouds around the star itself.
Just some more info... for the ones who are interested.
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posted
Vulcan was also assigned to Epsilon Eridani at some point, but I believe it's less-accepted than 40-Eridani. However, since a planet was found around Epsilon, not 40, everyone keeps making the Vulcan connection anyway.
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Alpha Centauri
Usually seen somewhere in the Southern skies
Member # 338
posted
Info about Epsilon Eri and 40 Eri? From my mind. I'm a die-hard amateur astronomer, those people have complete databases in their head.
The Vulcan question: 40 Eri was used in the most reputed fandom publications. There is only one (?) reference of Vulcan being in orbit around Eps Eri, namely Fred Goldsteins Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology (1980). But this has never been fully accepted in fandom.
The aliens: The little grey men are supposed to come from Zeta Reticuli: a wide binary star consisting of two G2V stars, both stars emitting 90% of Sol's light. Located 37 lightyears away. There have also been reports of them coming from Delta Pavonis, a G5V (I'm not sure about that) star, located some 19.2 lightyears away.
I've read an interesting article on the alien/Zeta Reticuli question, lately. It's not written by die-hard UFO geeks, but by scientists. It's very convincing. It was impossible for me to track it down again, but I had a copy of the HTML document on my harddisk, and uploaded it to: http://www.treknology.8m.com/zetareticuli.html.
Creating a new discussion: who of you do believe in alien visitations from space? I do, anyway. And that's all the fault of the above mentioned article.
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posted
Are they out there? Almost certainly. Are they here? I'm not saying.
Well, okay, I'll talk. I'm actually from the 5th planet orbiting the star you know as Nu Cassiopeia, which was settled by the native inhavitants of the fourth planet, about 250 years ago.
Or maybe I'm not.
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Alpha Centauri
Usually seen somewhere in the Southern skies
Member # 338
posted
Observing/researching/acting out of curiousity? Probably they don't have a Prime Directive... if we believe in alien abduction. But regarding that, I think 99.99% of such stories are b*llsh*t.
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"Now for sale at your local dealer: Antares class vessels, as good as new! They can shapeshift! Everybody in the galaxy has one! Now for only $800!"
[This message has been edited by Alpha Centauri (edited August 06, 2000).]
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posted
I think that was supposed to be the joke... :-)
And "survivour"? Do you guys actually spell it like that?
------------------ "Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra, and then, suddenly, it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come." -Matt Groening
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