(NLDO) - NASA's new statement has abruptly eliminated HD 26965 b - also known as Vulcan - almost the same way the planet of the same name in the movie Star Trek disappeared.
The planet Vulcan/HD 26965 b is a super-Earth orbiting the star 40 Eridani A in the triple star cluster 40 Eridani, just over 16 light years away.
It created a stir when it was discovered because it resembled the planet Vulcan, which has three parent stars and is the home of the character Spock in the famous Star Trek series.
But a group of NASA scientists have just published a study with the title "The Death of Vulcan".
Planet Vulcan as visualized from previous observational data - Graphic image: NASA
New research led by astronomer Abigail Burrows from Dartmouth College and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says that in the years after Vulcan was confirmed in 2018, it proved extremely unstable.
NASA once called it a "wobbly super-Earth" because signals showed it seemed to be constantly shaking.
The bad news for Star Trek fans comes from a device called NEID, a new radial velocity measuring device recently added to the telescope complex at Kitt Pea National Observatory in Arizona.
In this case, analysis of the planet's supposed signal at different wavelengths of light revealed it was likely simply a flicker of something on the star's surface that coincided with its 42-day rotation period.
The "something" could simply be convection combined with features on the star's surface.
All in all, the planet Vulcan may just be an illusionary planet!
The new statement reminds many people of the way Vulcan disappeared in Star Trek: Suddenly, swallowed by a black hole. Only what is swallowing it in the present is humanity's increasingly advanced observation methods.
Although the loss of a planet is of great scientific interest, this discovery is not necessarily bad news.
The method the team used to rule out Vulcan promises to yield clearer observations, distinguishing between confounding factors when searching for planets orbiting distant stars.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/nasa-khai-tu-sieu-trai-dat-gay-chan-dong-vulcan-196240531094924794.htm
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