00:00 Vulcan is the fictional planet in Star Trek from which Spock hails.
00:07 However, back in 2018, experts discovered a planet orbiting 40 Aridani A. The star Vulcan
00:13 was said to orbit in the series.
00:15 Flash forward to 2024, and much to the chagrin of Trekkies everywhere, astronomers now say
00:20 that was a false positive and a new analysis has revealed Vulcan doesn't exist.
00:25 So what happened?
00:26 Well, the former Vulcan was discovered initially using what's called radial velocity, or detecting
00:30 the gravitational interaction between the star and a possible planet.
00:34 Experts are able to measure how much the planet and star tug on one another as they orbit
00:38 around a common center point.
00:39 This is used when we cannot detect a planet passing between us and a star.
00:43 However, the fourth exhaustive study to confirm Vulcan has failed to do so because the readings
00:48 they have been getting are inconsistent.
00:49 That wouldn't be the case if a planet was orbiting every 42 days as they suspected.
00:54 Experts are now pointing to changes within the star itself that caused the false positive.
00:58 They add it could be star spots, bright spots, or internal convection causing the gravitational
01:03 wobble coinciding with the star's 42-day rotational period.
01:07 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:10 (gentle music)
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