(PHYS) – A large international team of space scientists has discovered that the detection of an exoplanet orbiting the star 40 Eridani was made in error. The group has published a paper on the arXiv pre-print server describing their reanalysis of the star and its exoplanet and how they discovered the error.
Back in 1966, the television show "Star Trek" made its debut—it lasted all of three years, but made an indelible impression on the American psyche. Several spin-offs have been made along with several motion pictures. One of the main characters was an alien named Spock, who hailed from the planet Vulcan, which orbited a star called 40 Eridani A.
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That star and its fictional planet were based on the real star 40 Eridani A and a presumed exoplanet. In 2018, an exoplanet was discovered orbiting 40 Eridani A – it was named 40 Eri b, though many "Star Trek" fans no doubt wanted it to be named Vulcan. Unfortunately, it turns out that 40 Eri b does not really exist – the discovery was a mistake.
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