star trek how far is vulcan from earth

Although unfortunately, distances are often concealed or avoided on Star Trek, there are nevertheless quite a lot of known distances. On the one hand, these distances are mentioned directly in the dialogue or displayed on computer screens, but more frequently, indirect figures and allusions are used, which can be transformed into actual distances. In chapter 1.2 of the Star Trek Cartography The Cartographer's tools , you can learn the methods and procedures for determining distances from indirect sources. The following table provides a nearly complete collection of all distances mentioned in the series, movies and official books (altogether 83), listing the starting points, destinations, distances and also the sources and the type of the figure (direct or indirect).

New in version 8 : seven entries added, all distances revised and/or specified (now precise up to the third decimal place!), source episodes added/corrected, extensive annotations added.

1. Table of Star Trek distances

Distances in italics: ultra-precise HIPPARCOS figures DQ=Delta Quadrant, QQ=Gamma Quadrant * Added in v8.0

2. Annotations

With these distances, we can assume that the colonies of the Federation (with exception of Rigel and Antares) and the "classic" empires of the Romulans and Klingonsare all within 200 ly away from Earth. Lacking of every indication what the distance Earth-Bajor or Earth-Cardassia might be until recently, since the ST:DS9 TM the distances of this "next generation" locations to the core region of the Federation is slightly clearer.

While real stars distances are highly accurate as they are based on the newest data available (from the 1990s HIPPARCOS satellite survey), somehow even revising older information (e.g. the 3200 vs. 1600 light years for the distance Earth - Deneb), all figures calculated from a time / distance / speed given in on screen dialogue must be regarded as conjecture minimum figures, as the light speed equivalents of warp factors (from the TOS/TNG Writer's Guide used by the creative staff of the series, and the official technical manuals) and various warp formulae are semi-canon at best and have been contricted in many episodes, leading to the theory that the true speed of warp factors varies according to locally different properties of space and subspace (expressed with the "Cochrane factor" X) and can be therefore higher than the given values (explaining the incredibly short travel times seen in some episodes).

Distances drawn from maps must be regarded as conjecture as well due to perspective / scale / validity uncertainties.

Locations from ST:TMP such as Betelgeuse or Cait have not been mentioned in dialogue but are strictly taken from background information. It is pretty certain, however, that they indeed exist in the Star Trek universe, as they are stars from the real Galaxy.

To end an old speculation, the real star 40 Eridani-A has never been mentioned in any Trek episode as the Vulcan home sun, including [TOS] Amok Time, even if this episode is often quoted as the source. It first appeared in early fandom publications of the 1970s. The episode Amok Time, however, includes some facts that support this assumption, such as the neighbourhood of Altair. Why do I regard 40 Eridani then still as fully canon? Gene Roddenberry himself "made it official" in 1991, and I don't know how more "canon" you can get. Please refer to the astronomy section of this website's Investigating Trek project for more information on the Vulcan home sun.

With its almost 800 light years distance, the real star Rigel has often been quoted as too far away from Earth to be indeed the central star of the important Star Trek system (mentioned in more than a dozen episodes!). While we had no evidence to really reject Rigel = Beta Orionis in the past, the pilot of the new series "Enterprise", "Broken Bow" clearly establishes that at least the "Rigel" mentioned in this episode, and the associated alien trading colony on the tenth planet, cannot have any relation to the real star for four reasons: 800 light years in 4 days are, even with the "Cochrane factor" justification, too far a stretch, the distance contradicts with the "15 light years from our current position" statement, the good Captain does not know anything about the system when he learns about it (while he should know it if it's the star known to Earth science for two thousand years) and, first and foremost, how should a Klingon source know anything about our Arabic designations for stars? "Rigel" can only be a alien homophone here, and it may be a homophone as well in some of the other mentions, comfortably solving the distance problem plus the improbabilities that a) one star has so many class M planets and b) that Beta Orionis has a planet that has developed intelligent life on its own (impossible given the short life span of super giants).

This compilation uses the 70000 light years / 75000 light years figures for the distance Earth-Ocampa and Bajor-Idran from the DS9:TM simply because the many on screen sources itself are too inconsistent with distances from 60000 to 90000 light years for the Gamma Quadrant terminus of the Bajoran Wormhole in DS9 and alternating distances of 70000 and 75000 light years for Voyager's initial distance to Earth.

In contrast to 40 Eridani/Vulcan, the fandom assignations for Andor and Tellar, Epsilon Indi and 61 Cygni are not included here, as they have never been backed up by any official information or member of the Star Trek staff. On contrary, Epsilon Indi as Andorian home sun is quite unlikely given that this system was mentioned twice in Trek without any hint regarding its alleged prominent inhabitants.

Other possible real star distances that were not included for some reason:

Ceti Alpha V/VI - Most fandom sources conjecture that this is simply the reversed notation of the real star Alpha Ceti (Menkar), but this star's distance to Earth (over 300 light years) is far too large given the course of events shown in Star Trek II. It's true that the too large distances of many other real stars cause problems too, however, I will accept these discrepancies only if we can be sure that it's indeed the real star (when the name is identical or practically identical, such as a wrong genitive form for the constellation).

Delta Vega  - Given that this planet's name includes the proper designation of a real star (Vega = Alpha Lyrae), one could assume that this is a different notation system specifying the number of the planet by greek letters (delta = forth planet). Again, the on screen events forbid this sometimes applied speculation, given that according to the second TOS pilot, this planet must be near the edge of the Galaxy. Because of this uncertainty, similar explanations for Beta Antares and Delta Rana are not accepted here, too.

Alpha Majoris  - It is mere speculation that this TOS planet orbits the real star Alpha Canis Majoris, as it could be Alpha Ursae Majoris as well. The proposed connection is simply too vague. The just as daring explanation of Zetar (= Zeta R eticuli) is rejected for similiar reasons.

Back to the Star Trek Cartography overview

� 1999-2001 by Star Trek Dimension / Webmaster . Last update: October 20th, 2001

Vulcan May Not be Real, but Spock’s Home System is

It takes a little imagination to wish some favorite fictional universes into existence. But, for legions of "Star Trek" fans, they don’t have to wish: one star system really exists in our Milky Way galaxy. In Star Trek lore, Vulcan is the home of logic, learning and the deeply beloved first officer Mr. Spock. While Vulcan is fictional, the star system it belongs to–40 Eridani–is very real. It’s located only 16.5 light-years away from Earth and its primary star can be spotted with the naked eye. So how much is science fiction and how much is science fact?

“Could there be an Earth-like planet in this system? We have no way of knowing that now,” said Karl Stapelfeldt, chief scientist of NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program. So while Vulcan (as far as we know) doesn’t exist, a fascinating triple sunset would occur on any rocky planet in the system, because 40 Eridani has three stars that circle each other.

See more: Interactive planets

The most massive is 40 Eridani A, a dwarf star that is the mythical Vulcan’s sun. The other two are a pair, orbiting each other at a distance from 40 Eridani A. This binary pair contains a red dwarf (40 Eridani C)­ and a white dwarf star (40 Eridani B). From the surface of Vulcan, “they would gleam brilliantly in the Vulcan sky,” according to Rodenberry in his 1991 letter to Sky & Telescope magazine.

If you believe in science fiction, Mr. Spock’s dreamt-up world lives in the habitable zone of the largest star, 40 Eridani A. The habitable zone, shown as the area in blue-green, is the distance from a star where liquid water is said to exist. Too far away from its sun and Vulcan would freeze like Pluto; too close and it would sizzle like Mercury. Vulcan is perched on the inner edge, lending the world its imagined desert-like quality (at least, in a timeline where the planet remains undestroyed).

But if there were a planet like Vulcan in the 40 Eridani system, would we be able to see it? Not yet. “We don’t yet have a way to detect it, but NASA is working on the technology to make it possible,” Stapelfeldt said.

Related Terms

Explore more.

That Starry Night Sky? It’s Full of Eclipses

Discovery Alert: a Long Year for a ‘Cold Saturn’

Two recently discovered exoplanets, gas giants possibly similar to Saturn, could be candidates for further atmospheric investigation.

More Planets than Stars: Kepler’s Legacy

The Kepler mission enabled the discovery of thousands of exoplanets, revealing a deep truth about our place in the cosmos: there are more planets than stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The road to this fundamental change in our understanding of the universe, however, required almost 20 years of persistence before the mission became a […]

Discover More Topics From NASA

Search for Life

Black Holes

SMART NEWS SCIENCE

Real planet discovered where vulcan home world in “star trek” is set.

“Fascinating, Captain”

Katherine J. Wu

Correspondent

In the “Star Trek” universe, the star 40 Eridani A (alias HD 26965) has long been canon as the sun of Vulcan, the home world of the franchise’s favorite pointy-eared science officer, Mr. Spock.

This was first established in 1968 by James Blish’s script anthology S tar Trek 2 and later affirmed in 1980’s Star Trek Maps by Jeff Maynard. But it wasn’t until 1991 that show creator Gene Roddenberry himself (backed by a few astrophysicists) penned a letter in scientific support of 40 Eridani as a probable host for Vulcan viability. Nearly three decades later, a new discovery from the University of Florida delivers some serious vindication to the choice, revealing a real-life planet actually clocking in at coordinates eerily reminiscent of the fictional M-Class planet.

A group of astronomers led by University of Florida’s Jian Ge first visualized the Vulcan lookalike as part of Dharma Planet Survey, which is exploring some 150 very bright stars near our solar system. The discovery marks the project’s first detection of a “ super-Earth ,” classified as a planet between two and ten times as massive as our own. This new candidate boasts a radius twice the size of Earth’s, and has nearly nine times the mass.

But the new find may have the potential to support life—and it’s the “closest [known] super-Earth orbiting another Sun-like star,” says Ge in a University of Florida press release .

And what about that Sun-like star? Compared to our own Sun, 40 Eridani A is a little smaller and cooler. But though the two stars are separated by about 17 light-years , according to David Bressan at Forbes , they’re thought to be about the same age—4.6 billion years old. This longtime solar sustenance could reasonably give the “Vulcan” planet enough time to evolve complex life forms. What’s more, this new celestial body orbits 40 Eridani A in what’s called a habitable zone, or a region with temperatures that could theoretically permit the existence of liquid water—a key requirement to live long and prosper.

“HD 26965 may be an ideal host star for an advanced civilization,” says study author Tennessee State University astronomer Matthew Muterspaugh in the release.

That being said, the new super-Earth candidate isn’t quite a home away from home : at their behemoth size and mass, many super-Earths exhibit a much higher gravitational pull than we’re used to, making us feel several times heavier than we would here on Earth. To make matters worse, this newly detected planet’s perimeter of orbit around 40 Eridani A is tight: A year there would barely last 42 days, and at such close proximity to its star, inhabitants could be exposed to some pretty toasty temperatures.

There’s a debate raging among astrophysicists, too, about how livable super-Earths even are. Leading planetary scientists like Alessandro Morbidelli of the University of Nice, France, believe that many such super-Earths may be uninhabitable (though arguments have also been made to the contrary). However, given the loose definition for these planets, issuing a single blanket statement about super-Earth habitability would be highly illogical, to borrow the words of one esteemed science officer.

Sadly, the newly detected planet is unlikely to acquire the official “Vulcan” moniker anytime soon. As Alan Boyle at GeekWire reports , “Vulcan” has already been tossed around as a hypothetical planet once thought to exist within the orbit of Mercury, and the International Astronomical Union’s planet-naming system can be a little prickly about names that tread on intellectual property rights . In fact, Boyle reports, the IAU recently vetoed the name for one of Pluto’s moons.

But devoted Trekkers (many of whom are in the space business, themselves) may not be too bothered by that.

After all, as planetary scientist Jessie Christiansen of NASA, pointed out on Twitter, [the planet] “is not very much like the fictional Vulcan.” “But,” she continues, “it’s a planet orbiting the same star and planets often have planet siblings, so I’m excited for more!”

Indeed, as astrophysicist Andy Howell of the Las Cumbres Observatory noted on Twitter: “If you're going by the new movies’ Star Trek lore, the planet the @UF astronomers found in 40 Eridani A could be Delta Vega, as the writers put it so close to Vulcan that you could see Vulcan huge in the sky from the surface.” (That’s the planet Captain Kirk met Spock in the 2009 franchise revival.)

And, until proven otherwise, the planet remains potentially habitable, so for those hoping for a First Contact scenario, keep your eyes peeled to the sky.

According to “Star Trek” lore, after all, humans and Vulcans are scheduled to meet in the not-too-distant future of April 5, 2063.

Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Katherine J. Wu | | READ MORE

Katherine J. Wu is a Boston-based science journalist and Story Collider senior producer whose work has appeared in National Geographic , Undark magazine, Popular Science and more. She holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunobiology from Harvard University, and was Smithsonian magazine's 2018 AAAS Mass Media Fellow.

Vulcan system

• View history

The Vulcan system , also known as the 40 Eridani system , was an inhabited star system located in the Alpha Quadrant . This was a trinary star system . Several planets, including Delta Vega and Ni'Var , orbited the star 40 Eridani A . Neighboring the Andorian system , it was located sixteen light years from the Sol system . ( ENT : " The Andorian Incident ", " Home ", " Daedalus "; Star Trek ; DIS : " Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad ")

• 2 Components
• 4.1 Background information
• 4.2 Apocrypha
• 4.3 External links

History [ ]

Alpha/Beta Quadrant Overview

In 2256 , Vulcan was labeled on the star chart "Alpha/Beta Quadrant Overview" in the ready room aboard the USS Discovery . ( DIS : " Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad ")

In 2257 , during the first Federation-Klingon War , this star's system was near the front line. ( DIS : " The War Without, The War Within ")

In 2258 , the system's location was labeled on a star chart seen on the main viewscreen of the USS Enterprise . ( DIS : " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 ")

That same year, in the alternate reality , Delta Vega was the location of a Starfleet outpost . That year, Nero destroyed the planet Vulcan by creating a small black hole in its core. ( Star Trek )

Location of Vulcan labeled on a star chart (2259)

In 2259 , the location of this system was labeled on a stellar cartography chart that was seen on the USS Enterprise 's ready room viewscreen . This system's symbol had a blue color , indicating it's affiliation with the Federation. ( SNW : " Strange New Worlds ", " Spock Amok ", " A Quality of Mercy ")

In 2293 , the location of Vulcan in the Milky Way Galaxy was labeled in a star chart that was in Captain James T. Kirk 's quarters aboard the USS Enterprise -A . ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , okudagram )

The system's location was labeled in a Federation star chart that was in Fleet Admiral Kirsten Clancy 's office at Starfleet Headquarters in 2399 and on the bridge of the USS Titan -A in 2401 . 40 Eridani was in or near to Federation space . ( PIC : " Maps and Legends ", " The Next Generation ", " Disengage ")

In 2401, this system's position was labeled on a star chart used by Captain William T. Riker during his attempt at finding the last known location of the SS Eleos XII . ( PIC : " The Next Generation ")

Components [ ]

• 40 Eridani A I
• T'Khut moon
• Delta Vega (orbital position unknown)
• An asteroid belt
• Kerkhovian moon

See also [ ]

• 40 Eridani A Starfleet Construction Yards
• Vulcan space

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

T'Khut and its moon seen from the surface of Vulcan

Two other worlds in the Vulcan system seen from the surface of Vulcan

A picture of a star chart supposedly used for Star Trek: Discovery was tweeted by Ted Sullivan on November 28, 2017. According to this map, the star Vulcan was also known as 40 Eridani A . [1]

The original theatrical edit of Star Trek: The Motion Picture depicted four large orbs in the Vulcan sky. They were removed in the DVD release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition and replaced by an orange sky. According to Star Trek: Communicator  issue 136 , p. 27, the additional planets were removed for the reason that the scene took place during daytime, so a night sky was not appropriate, and they were elements that distracted the viewer from a scene intended to take place on a far-off monastic temple. Vulcan in and of itself was considered to be interesting enough without cluttering the sky with these planets.

In the Star Trek: Discovery episodes " Lethe ", " If Memory Serves ", and " Such Sweet Sorrow ", celestial bodies were seen from the surface of Vulcan. For the first time, in " Unification III ", celestial bodies near to Vulcan were seen in space.

According to Star Trek: Star Charts (p. 58), T'Khut was the name of Vulcan's twin planet that was visible from the planet's surface. T'Khut was classified as a G-class world , and had one moon. The Vulcan system also known as the 40 Eridani A System or Omicron 2 Ceti System was a trinary star system . 40 Eridani A had a spectral type of K1V with an absolute magnitude of 6.0. 40 Eridani B had a spectral type of AVII with an absolute magnitude of 11.2. 40 Eridani C had a spectral type of M4V with an absolute magnitude of 12.3. The distance between A and B was 400 au ; the distance between B and C was 44 au. The orbital period of this system was 248 years.

According to the Stellar Cartography: The Starfleet Reference Library ("Stellar Cartography", pp. 22-24 & 34), the Vulcan system was the 40 Eridani A system. The 40 Eridani system was known to the Vulcans as Nevasi. The primary star, 40 Eridani A (Nevasi A), was class K. The innermost planet was a rocky class B planet named Ket-Cheleb. Vulcan (T'Khasi) was in a co-orbital relationship with the class G planet T'Khut ("the Watcher"), which had one moon named T'Rukhemai ("the Eye of the Watcher"). The icy planetoid Delta Vega was located in the outer asteroid belt. The two companions of 40 Eridani A, 40 Eridani B (Nevasi B) and 40 Eridani C (Nevasi C), were a white class A4 dwarf and a red flare class M4 dwarf, respectively.

There had been, however, no direct canonical reference of the Vulcan system being the 40 Eridani system before it was canonized in the Star Trek: Picard episode "Maps and Legends". In " Home " and " Daedalus ", Vulcan was mentioned as being slightly over sixteen light years from Earth, the same distance between Earth and 40 Eridani A. According to text commentary by Michael and Denise Okuda for " The Forge " on the ENT Season 4 DVD , the possibility of Vulcan being located in the 40 Eridani system originated from a suggestion by novelist James Blish . When three astronomers (Sallie Baliunas, Robert Donahue, and George Nassiopoulas) who had been studying the system at Mount Wilson Observatory published a letter stating that the star "40 Eridani A could support a planet with Earth-like life" and that it would "have the Sun's brightness for a planet fifty million miles away", they theorized that Vulcan could be in orbit of this star, a theory Gene Roddenberry himself supported by signing their letter, according to Sky & Telescope , 1991 July.

In a tweet from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds first assistant art director Timothy Peel , there was an image of the Vulcan system, which according to him was seen at the console holding the astrogator of the USS Enterprise . The system was depicted as a three-planet system, containing the planets 40 Eridani A 1, T'Khut, and Vulcan. The latter two planets were in a co-orbital relationship. T'Khut was orbited by an unnamed moon. Past Vulcan and T'Khut, there was an asteroid belt. Lying nearby, there were the stars 40 Eridani B and 40 Eridani C, which, too, had a co-orbital relationship. Delta Vega was not included on the chart. [2]

Apocrypha [ ]

Non-canon sources, such as the novel Spock's World and the reference book Spaceflight Chronology , mention there being up to 7 planets in orbit of Vulcan's sun.

In Last Unicorn Games ' Star Trek Roleplaying Game sourcebooks Planets of the UFP and The Way of Kolinahr , 40 Eridani A is orbited by six planets, known as Ket-Cheleb, Vulcan, Valdena, Tel-Alep, Kal-Apton, and Kir Alep.

In the video games Star Trek: Fleet Command and Star Trek: Infinite , the fourth planet in orbit of 40 Eridani A is Delta Vega. Both games also name the first planet "Ket-Cheleb", as in the Last Unicorn Games role-playing game. Infinite also shows at least two planets in orbit of 40 Eridani C.

External links [ ]

• 40 Eridani at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 40 Eridani at Wikipedia
• 40 Eridani at the Internet Stellar Database

Does Vulcan Really Exist? (If So, Could We Find It?)

xvicente Captain Captain

I rewatched IV. Kirk and co. take the Bird of Prey to Earth from Vulcan. Not long after launch (I suppose), Sulu announces: >SULU: Estimating Planet Earth, one point six hours present speed. That's 96min. I seem to remember reading Vulcan was supposed to orbit the real star Epsilon Eridani -- that's 10.5 l.y. by the classic rule speed = (warp factor)³ x speed of light, that's warp 38.6. Isn't that too much? (still less that JJ's warp) However, Scotty said he replaced the Klingon foodpacks. So they were planning to eat during the flight. That may indicate the voyage was intended to be much longer than 2 hours. OTOH, maybe a ship may be required to carry food on all flights.  

Ethros Vice Admiral Admiral

Obviously they were going at "ludicrous speed"  

Kevman7987 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

That may not have been soon after launch. There may have been a few hours where they just sat around until George gave an update on their ETA. Heck they could have raided the Klingons' quarters, played dress-up and had a tea party with those snacks they packed (hopefully it was a pudding snack-pack) right before. Kirk: *puts on Kruge's hat* "Look, I'm Kruge. Howdy, howdy, howdy."  

alpha_leonis Captain Captain

I never took the "warp-factor-cubed" rule seriously. I remember reading about it, and then very soon after I watched the following pair of TOS episodes, in this order: 1. "Arena" established that Warp 6 is the Enterprise's maximum safe cruising velocity, but they can go up to Warp 8 for a short time in emergency situations. (That has the potential of tearing the ship apart if they stay up there too long -- on the order of mere minutes to hours.) 2. "The Squire of Gothos" has a plot point that Trelane's planet was 900 light years away, therefore he was recreating Earth as it appeared 900 years in the past. If they travel to Gothos at Warp 6 (their fastest safe velocity), and Warp 6 = 6^3 = 216c, then it takes slightly over four years one-way of pure traveling time just to get there. Which means eight years round-trip, not counting any other missions they serve along the way. So much for the five-year mission!  

I learned (in Memory Alpha) that Vulcan does not orbit Epsilon Eridani but 40 Eridani That's farther: 16.45 light-years according to Wikipedia In 1.6 hours it's almost warp 45!!!  

F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

As far as the plot needs.  

C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

I've followed the 16 light-year distance even before Tucker said so in ENT's "Home." "You brought me sixteen light years just to watch you get married to someone you barely know." --Commander Tucker to Commander T'Pol while on Vulcan Click to expand...

Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

At the end of TMP, Scott boasts that they can get Spock from Earth to Vulcan in just 3 days. Or maybe it wasn't a boast - the engines may have been damaged from the V'ger incident I suppose. Still, it seems odd that a measly BOP can outpace a starship by so much!  

Shawnster Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

It's a movie. As with all movies (and TV shows), when there is a cut from one scene to another, we do not always know how much time is skipped in the cut. Nobody complains about the police show or fire show where we see the first responders get a call and the very next scene shows the units arriving on the scene. The audience understands that those boring intervening minutes were not shown for sake of the story. Same with the "Bounty's" flight from Vulcan to Earth. I'm sorry, the nits about warp speed or ludicrous speed really don't apply in this instance.  

Christopher Writer Admiral

Enterprise made the 16-ly distance canonical (after implying in the first season that Vulcan was much farther away, given that humans had never encountered their next-door neighbors the Andorians). That pretty much confirms that Vulcan is 40 Eridani, a star first proposed by James Blish in his adaptation of "Tomorrow is Yesterday" in Star Trek 2 in 1968 (a seminal volume, since it also contained the first mention of the 23rd century in connection with Star Trek , in the "Space Seed" adaptation). There are maybe five other stars whose distances would round to 16 ly, all of which are obscure red or orange dwarfs. I'm not sure how 40 Eridani became Epsilon Eridani in some sources; maybe just from people confusing the names, or not realizing that "Eridani" (pronounced "eh- rid 'n-eye" or "eh- rid 'n-ee," by the way, not "air-ih-donny" as some people say) is the possessive of the constellation Eridanus and that there are dozens of different stars that have it in their Bayer designations. I think there was at least one source that claimed Vulcan was Alpha Eridani, aka Achernar.  

T'Girl Vice Admiral Admiral

alpha_leonis said: ↑ "The Squire of Gothos" has a plot point that Trelane's planet was 900 light years away, therefore he was recreating Earth as it appeared 900 years in the past. Click to expand...

Mytran said: ↑ At the end of TMP, Scott boasts that they can get Spock from Earth to Vulcan in just 3 days Click to expand...

MacLeod Admiral Admiral

Mytran said: ↑ At the end of TMP, Scott boasts that they can get Spock from Earth to Vulcan in just 3 days. Or maybe it wasn't a boast - the engines may have been damaged from the V'ger incident I suppose. Still, it seems odd that a measly BOP can outpace a starship by so much! Click to expand...

BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

You mean J.J. Abrams didn't introduce wildly fast and inconsistent warp speeds to Star Trek?!? Some folks may throw themselves off of buildings when they finally figure that out.  

Well on the plus side VOY would be back in what a month at those speeds. Whilst I have enjoyed the latest films, I'm sorry but the speeds just seem ridiculous.  

MacLeod said: ↑ Well on the plus side VOY would be back in what a month at those speeds. Whilst I have enjoyed the latest films, I'm sorry but the speeds just seem ridiculous. Click to expand...

Mister Sulu all ahead plot speed.  

Ithekro Vice Admiral Admiral

The question would be, how long can a starship maintain those speeds? Long enough to cross the galaxy without running out of fuel.  

Quinton O'Connor Commodore Commodore

I'm a simple man. Vulcan was kind of far in ENT. Not too far at all in TOS. Next door in a condominium in the TNG era. In the guest bathroom in nuTrek, I suppose. Well, briefly anyway.  

Which then makes us wonder. What Scotty's telling Spock they could have him to Vulcan in four day to show off Enterprise's speed, or simply that they could get the shakedown finished in a shorter period of time so they could take him home? It use to be that it was suspected to be a boost of the ship's speed. The old data points listed the refit Enterprise being able to reach Warp Factor 12, which would be enough to get to Vulcan (40 Eridani) in four days from Earth. But now, some 35 years later, we start to question it.  

• Log in with Facebook
• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?
• Search titles only

Separate names with a comma.

• Search this thread only
• Display results as threads

Useful Searches

• Recent Posts

A Complete History of the Pre-Federation Vulcans in Star Trek

The Vulcans are founding members of Star Trek's United Federation of planets, but they have a long history dating back to before they even met humans.

Quick Links

The origins of vulcan society are a mystery, the vulcans take to space and finally find other species, the vulcans met humanity before first contact, the vulcans and starfleet is a match made in the cosmos.

The universe created by Gene Roddenberry 60 years ago is full of incredible characters and unique alien species. However, the aliens most important to Star Trek history are the Vulcans, which were introduced with Spock and expanded into an entire cosmological society. In fact, some of the best stories about the Vulcans took place before the United Federation of Planets even existed. The Vulcans were created by Roddenberry, though many writers like Gene L. Coon, Dorothy D.C. Fontana and others through the years contributed to their mythos.

Equally responsible for these pointy-eared logic lovers is Leonard Nimoy, who invented the nerve pinch . He also invented the Vulcan salute and countless more elements of Vulcan culture on-screen in the Star Trek: The Original Series era. Interestingly, the second wave of Star Trek shows and films didn't explore them too much until its later years. Both Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise are responsible for some momentous events in Vulcan history. Discovery and Strange New Worlds also continue to define Vulcan culture and expand audiences' understanding of humans best space-friends. However, the stories that predate the Federation highlight a society that's not nearly as perfect as Spock would have had his friends on the USS Enterprise believe.

Leonard Nimoy Almost Quit Star Trek Over Excluding Actors of Color

There are two possible origins for the Vulcans, neither of which are mutually exclusive. Some four billion years ago, a species of aliens known as the Primogenitors explored space and found no humanoid life. They seeded worlds with technology encouraging the evolution of people with a head, two legs and two arms. Vulcan is a hot, harsh desert world, so it's possible life didn't evolve there naturally. A being named Sargon revealed his species colonized many worlds, including possibly Vulcan, a half-billion years before the 23rd Century . However, the Vulcans Star Trek fans know can trace their history to a species of "Proto-Vulcans" that shared characteristics with Romulans as well.

The Vulcans were capable of space travel 900 years before the Common Era on Earth, yet they did not get there through love of logic and suppression of emotions. The early history of Vulcan was marred by violence and war, driven by the Proto-Vulcans' powerful emotions, especially rage and fear. They developed a religious belief system with many gods and involved intense rituals, particularly around life events like marriage. Their early space exploration was equally uneventful as there were not many warp-capable species around .

By the 4th Century on Earth, the Vulcans were still engaged in brutal warfare, including the use of nuclear weapons. During this time a philosopher devoted to pure logic, named Surak, emerged and convinced the populace to follow his discipline of suppressing emotion. Some early Vulcans didn't want to follow Surak and left the planet. It's believed during this time the group of Proto-Vulcans who would evolve into the Romulans left the planet. However, if Vulcan was a colony world, their Romulan ancestors may have never been on the planet in the first place.

Star Trek: Leonard Nimoy and Gene Roddenberry Feud Explained

While Surak's teachings about logic took root in society, the full extent of his philosophy was eventually seen as heretical. Using Vulcans' natural psychic abilities , Surak's followers could mind meld and even pass on their katra (a consciousness or soul) to others. Surak's katra was passed on among this sect of followers until the 22nd Century. Yet, even those Vulcans opposed to the psychic business still stuck to logic. This led them to embrace scientific discovery and explore space with a newfound vigor, 1500 years after Surak's time. They were not pacifists, and in fact the Vulcan fleet was a formidable adversary to its galactic neighbors like Andorians, Klingons and Romulans.

The Vulcans encountered their two closest neighbors, the Tellarites and the Andorians, during Earth's 20th Century. The disagreeable Tellarites were ironically less antagonistic, often passing on distress calls and helping Vulcans in need. The Andorians and Vulcans entered an antagonistic relationship, frequently having border disputes. The ancient monastery on P'Jem was converted into a listening post to spy on their neighbors. The Klingons met the Vulcans around 2016 and engaged them in battle. When meeting Klingons afterward, they would fire on them first, which became known as "the Vulcan Hello."

Vulcans explored significant galactic territory in the 20th and 21st Centuries. When encountering a warp-capable species, they would initiate first contact. Often it went poorly, like with the Arkonians in the 2050s, and the Vulcans would eventually shut down almost all diplomatic relations. The Vulcans almost went to war with the Andorians over a disputed planet in the 21st Century. A famous Vulcan ambassador named V'Lar negotiated peace and reclaimed the world for Vulcans. By the time of the 22nd Century, Vulcans were a significant regional power, comparable only to Klingons and, possibly, Romulans .

Nimoy and Frakes Prove Star Trek's First Officers Make Great Directors

In 1957, a Vulcan survey ship crashed on Earth and needed rescue . The Vulcans had a version of the Prime Directive, and thus tried to avoid interacting with humans. Eventually, they settled in the small town of Carbon Creek studying human society and learning about them. Some feared humans were just like the Vulcans, particularly with the advent of nuclear weapons. One of the scientists, Mestral, decided to make humans his pet project . Because Vulcans were so long-lived, he was presumably able to survive until after the official First Contact.

Sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s, a young Martin Wells was hunting for his lost dog in the woods. He stumbles onto a Vulcan survey team, testing the water of a lake. Martin runs away screaming, but one of the Vulcans catches up to him. One of the sect who followed the full Surak teachings, tries to do a mind-meld to make the boy forget what he saw. The Vulcan ship, however, transports him away before he could finish. Vulcans continued to monitor Earth for a century, aware of World War III as it happened. The Vulcans, however, maintained their non-interventionist policy.

In 2063, a Vulcan ship called T'Plana-Hath was on a routine survey mission near the Sol system, though not directed at Earth . Zefram Cochrane (with the help of Will Riker and Geordi La Forge) launched the Phoenix and conducted a successful test of his warp drive engine. The ship diverted to Earth in order to make first contact with the Humans. Unlike with the Andorians or Arkonians, the Vulcans stayed on Earth for the next 100 years helping them build a warp-five capable vessel.

Leonard Nimoy Is the Iconic Spock - But Ethan Peck Is a Worthy Successor

By 2151, the NX-01 Enterprise launched , with Sub-commander T'Pol representing the Vulcan High Command and serving as the ship's science officer . Captain Jonathan Archer had a contentious relationship with the Vulcans, though they were good allies to Earth. They would defend the Enterprise and other human vessels, including from the Klingons after the Enterprise returned a wounded operative to Qo'noS on its maiden voyage. Still, Captain Archer disrupted many Vulcan plans, such as revealing the listening post at the P'Jem Monastery to Andorians.

However, this endeared humans to Vulcans' most persistent antagonists. Twice Archer was called upon to help negotiate between the two species. Still, relations soured, and a sect of power-hungry Vulcans instituted a plan to use humans as pawns to eliminate the faithful of Surak, including T'Pau, who would become a venerated Vulcan leader. Earlier the katric ark belonging to Surak was discovered. Captain Archer was given this katra and discovered the complete accounting of Surak's teachings, lost for centuries. He survived attempts by Vulcans to kill him and the other "Syrannites" as they tried to secure their positions as Vulcan's rulers, delivering Surak's teachings to the council.

After this discovery, Vulcans embraced the full spectrum of his philosophy, becoming the characters Star Trek fans most readily recognize. The Vulcans joined with Starfleet, the Tellarites, the Andorrians and others to form an alliance. First dubbed the Coalition of Planets, this group evolved into the United Federation of Planets , of which the Vulcans were a founding member. A xenophobic faction of humans tried to stop this, but all they did was highlight that Vulcan and Human DNA was compatible, leading to the circumstances that produced the half-human, half-Vulcan Spock.

The Star Trek universe encompasses multiple series, each offering a unique lens through which to experience the wonders and perils of space travel. Join Captain Kirk and his crew on the Original Series' voyages of discovery, encounter the utopian vision of the Federation in The Next Generation, or delve into the darker corners of galactic politics in Deep Space Nine. No matter your preference, there's a Star Trek adventure waiting to ignite your imagination.

Universe Today

Space and astronomy news

Astronomers find Planet Vulcan – 40 Eridani A – Right Where Star Trek Predicted it.

One of the more interesting and rewarding aspects of astronomy and space exploration is seeing science fiction become science fact. While we are still many years away from colonizing the Solar System or reaching the nearest stars (if we ever do), there are still many rewarding discoveries being made that are fulfilling the fevered dreams of science fiction fans.

For instance, using the Dharma Planet Survey, an international team of scientists recently discovered a super-Earth orbiting a star just 16 light-years away. This super-Earth is not only the closest planet of its kind to the Solar System, it also happens to be located in the same star system as the fictional planet Vulcan from the Star Trek universe.

The study which details their findings, which recently appeared in the M onthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , was led by Bo Ma and Jian Ge, a post-doctoral researcher and a professor of astronomy from the University of Florida, respectively. They were joined by researchers from Tennessee State University, the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias ,  the Universidad de La Laguna, Vanderbilt University, the University of Washington, and the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory .

For the sake of their study, the team relied on data from the Dharma Planet Survey (DPS). This survey relied on the 2-meter Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope (AST) at the Fairborn Observatory (from 2014-2015) and the a 50-inch Dharma Endowment Foundation Telescope (DEFT) at the Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter (from 2016-2018) to observe 100 very bright stars located near the Solar System.

Using this data, the team discovered a signal coming from the triple star system of HD 26965 that indicated the presence of a super-Earth. In addition to being the first planet of its kind to be detected by the Dharma Survey, this planet is also the closest super-Earth to our Solar System – making it an ideal case study for such planets. As Ge said in a recent UF News press statement :

“The new planet is a ‘super-Earth’ orbiting the star HD 26965, which is only 16 light years from Earth, making it the closest super-Earth orbiting another Sun-like star. The planet is roughly twice the size of Earth and orbits its star with a 42-day period just inside the star’s optimal habitable zone.”

As with most exoplanets, this super-Earth was discovered using the Radial Velocity Method (aka. Doppler Spectroscopy), where the spectra of stars are monitored for signs of “wobble”, where the star is found to be moving towards and away from Earth. This movement is caused by the presence of planets, which exert a gravitational influence on their respective suns.

Gregory W. Henry, a senior research scientist from Tennessee University, was responsible for collecting the precise brightness measurements from the AST that confirmed the presence of the planet. As he explained, this system is already known to fans of Star Trek as being where Spock, the science officer on the USS Enterprise , came from.

“Star Trek fans may know the star HD 26965 by its alternative moniker, 40 Eridani A,” he said. “Vulcan was connected to 40 Eridani A in the publications “Star Trek 2” by James Blish (Bantam, 1968) and “Star Trek Maps” by Jeff Maynard (Bantam, 1980).”

This is confirmed in a letter written by Gene Roddenberry (the creator of Star Trek ) along with Sallie Baliunas, Robert Donahue, and George Nassiopoulos of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). Published in July 1991 by Sky and Telescope , the letter stated that 40 Eridani A was home to planet Vulcan. As they wrote, Vulcan orbits the primary star while the two companion stars “would gleam brilliantly in the Vulcan sky.”

Matthew Muterspaugh, an associate professor and the director of Center of Excellence in Information Systems at Tennessee State University, helped commission the Dharma spectrograph on the University’s 2-meter Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope at Fairborn. As he indicated , this planet may in fact be home to an extra-terrestrial civilization:

“The orange-tinted HD 26965 is only slightly cooler and slightly less massive than our Sun, is approximately the same age as our Sun, and has a 10.1-year magnetic cycle nearly identical to the Sun’s 11.6-year sunspot cycle. Therefore, HD 26965 may be an ideal host star for an advanced civilization.”

Another thing this latest exoplanet discovery has going for it is the fact that, on a clear night, its star can be seen with the naked eye. This is something that is not possible with most exoplanets-hosting star systems that have been discovered to date. But thanks to its proximity and its brightness, HD 26965 can be spotted in the southern constellation Eridanus .

As Ge explained, the discovery of “Vulcan” was also a success for the method and instruments used to find it:

“This discovery demonstrates that fully dedicated telescopes conducting high-cadence, high-precision radial velocity observations in the near future will continue to play a key role in the discovery of more super-Earths and even Earth-like planets in the habitable zones around nearby stars. I am very grateful to the donor of our Dharma Planet Survey, Mr. Mickey Singer, who recognized the importance of this project and has continuously provided support to make this and future discoveries possible.”

Who knows? With even more sophisticated instruments being constructed or launching to space in the coming years, we may find many more planets that happen to coincide with fictional worlds from popular science fiction franchises. Perhaps there is a Pandora, a Solaris, or an Arrakis (Dune) out there just waiting to be found!

Further Reading: UF News , MNRAS

Share this:

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

One Reply to “Astronomers find Planet Vulcan – 40 Eridani A – Right Where Star Trek Predicted it.”

Fascinating.

Comments are closed.

There’s a planet exactly where Star Trek said Vulcan should be

Countdown: 45 years left until ‘First Contact’

By Mary Beth Griggs | Published Sep 20, 2018 10:30 PM EDT

Astrophysicists just found a planet orbiting the star HD 26965, 16 light years away from Earth. Finding exoplanets is always fun, and the fact that this one is in the star’s habitable zone (where liquid water could exist on its surface) is a bonus. But that’s not why people are particularly psyched about the announcement.

See, HD 26965 also goes by 40 Eridani A—the star orbited by Spock’s homeworld in Star Trek . That means they found Vulcan. Ok, fine, they found a real-world analog to a completely fictional world, but you can’t blame Star Trek fans for being excited.

A star’s backstory

The star was first suggested as a possible candidate for Vulcan’s host in a 1968 collection of short stories by James Blish adapted from episodes of the iconic original series. It became canon decades later in a letter co-authored by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry published in Sky and Telescope in 1991 (see page five).

From the letter: “This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the launch of two important enterprises. One is the HK Project at Mount Wilson Observatory, where astronomers have been monitoring surface magnetic activity on EDO solar-type stars to understand our own Sun’s magnetic history. The other is the starship Enterprise on the television series “Star Trek.” Surprisingly, the two have more in common than their silver anniversaries.”

In 1966—at the same time Star Trek premiered—the HK project started looking at the light of distant stars, trying to get more information about how these flaming balls of charged gas worked. One of those stars was 40 Eridani A, a single star in a triple-star system.

They also looked at another star, Epsilon Eridani, which is frequently cited in science fiction as a distant alien homeworld. Thanks to a different, 1980 Star Trek book, Epsilon Eridani was also in contention to be Vulcan’s star. Here’s where it gets really fun: Citing the work of the HK Project, Roddenberry and three Harvard astrophysicists wrote in their Sky and Telescope letter that 40 Eridani A was the better candidate for Vulcan’s star since it was 4 billion years old (similar to Earth) while Epsilon Eridani was only 1 billion years old. A comparative infant, any planets around Epsilon Eridani wouldn’t have had time to evolve complex and advanced life forms.

We get it, you nerd. What about the actual science?

The data published in a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society is just as cool as the sci-fi. To find this planet, the researchers looked for small changes in the star’s light that could indicate something was orbiting it.

Instead of looking for a dip in light as a planet moves between its star and a telescope (called a transit) these researchers watched the wavelengths of light coming off the star, looking for little shifts that would indicate how it’s moving relative to Earth . That gives them a general idea of how often the planet orbits its star, and how big it is.

“The new planet is a ‘super-Earth’ orbiting the star HD 26965, which is only 16 light years from Earth, making it the closest super-Earth orbiting another Sun-like star,” lead author Jian Ge said in a statement . “The planet is roughly twice the size of Earth and orbits its star with a 42-day period just inside the star’s optimal habitable zone.”

But a super-Earth isn’t necessarily Earth-like—the term refers to any planet with a mass higher than our home world’s but significantly less than the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. The researchers don’t yet know what kind of planet the real-life Vulcan is; it could be a big ol’ version of the rocky Earth, but it could also be a gaseous planet something like a pint-sized Neptune.

Without more data, we won’t know. But luckily we’re about to get more data. NASA’s TESS satellite will be looking toward that star later this year, and if the planet transits, we could get more information about its density or atmosphere.

If TESS does show that Vulcan is more like Earth than Neptune, that still doesn’t mean a bunch of green-blooded, pointy-eared aliens with an extremely advanced and logical society are hanging out on the surface. That’s incredibly unlikely. We’ll be lucky if there’s even microbial life for us to hunt down traces of. But we can still hope. Roddenberry was right about cell phones, tablets, and automatic sliding doors so clearly that means we’ve got 45 years left before we invent warp drive and make first contact. Make it so.

Like science, tech, and DIY projects?

Sign up to receive Popular Science's emails and get the highlights.

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Published Apr 30, 2016

Inside A Travel Guide to Vulcan

Back in January, StarTrek.com gave fans a First Look at Hidden Universe Travel Guide: Star Trek: Vulcan , an upcoming interactive guidebook from Insight Editions that explores everything Spock's home planet has to offer. Now, StarTrek.com is pleased to take you inside the guide, which is written by popular Trek author Dayton Ward, as we share an exclusive preview of pages from Hidden Universe Travel Guide: Star Trek: Vulcan .

And, once again, here's the synopsis from Insight Editions: Plan your next trip to the planet Hidden Universe Travel Guide: Star Trek: Vulcan ! Find restaurants that serve the best fried sandworms and Vulcan port. Take a trip to the Fire Plains or experience spring break at the Voroth Sea. Learn all about the native Vulcan people and their unusual customs. Discover how to correctly perform the traditional Vulcan salutation (you really don’t want to get this wrong). Learn key Vulcan phrases such as Nam-tor puyan-tvi-shal wilat: “Where is your restroom?” Find out what to do if you suddenly find yourself host to a katra—a Vulcan’s living spirit—at an inconvenient moment. All this and more can be found within the pages of this essential travel guide to one of the most popular—and logical—destinations in the known universe.

Hidden Universe Travel Guide: Star Trek: Vulcan draws on 50 years of Star Trek TV shows, films, and novels to present a comprehensive guide to Spock’s iconic home world. Modeled after real-world travel guides, the book will explore every significant region on Vulcan with fascinating historical, geographical, and cultural insights that bring the planet to life like never before. Also featuring a dynamic mixture of classic Star Trek imagery and original illustrations created exclusively for the book, Hidden Universe: Star Trek: A Travel Guide to Vulcan is the perfect way to celebrate 50 years of Star Trek and will thrill pop culture fans and hardcore Star Trek fans alike.

Due out on July 19, Hidden Universe Travel Guide: Star Trek: Vulcan will be released as a paperback that measures 6 x 9 inches and runs 160 pages. It will cost $19.99. Go to www.amazon.com to preorder it.

Get Updates By Email

Screen Rant

Star trek writers break down that massive 'vulcan god' twist, new section 31 secrets, and more.

Writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing discuss the massive lore reveals in Star Trek #19 from IDW Publishing and what fans can expect next.

• Revealing T'Lir as an Organian adds depth to the godly theme in IDW's Star Trek series, enhancing the character's identity and Trek lore.
• Exploring advanced beings' interaction with humanity is core to Star Trek, setting up a grand, unified, and catastrophic story.
• Section 31's mysterious involvement and upcoming revelations promise an incredible and interwoven tale in the Star Trek universe.

The Star Trek universe is adding new characters and resurrecting old ones in its quest to deliver "the best Star Trek story ever told," and with its newest headline-making chapter, the IDW comic series is pulling no punches to achieve that goal.

With the latest issue of the series dropping more than one lore-changing bombshell in the true, 'divine' nature of Sisko's Vulcan crew member T'Lir, a new twist in the shadowy operations of Section 31, and Captain Benjamin Sisko's own mission from the Prophets, fans are reeling. So Screen Rant asked the writers themselves, Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, to break down the newest reveals.

Needless to say, there will be SPOILERS for Star Trek #19 ahead!

SR: One of the new series' biggest mysteries has finally been solved: the true identity (and nature) of the Vulcan T'Lir. When did you decide to bring the Organians back into this story? What was it about their previous appearances in Tre k?

Jackson Lanzing: Finally, it can be told! T’Lir has secretly been an Organian from the very first outline - if we were going to make this a story about “gods,” it was extremely important for there to be a character on the ship who represented what that word actually meant. Incarnating them in a Vulcan body was also extremely important to us, as Star Trek always feels more like Star Trek with a Vulcan in the room, but it also gave us a great stereotype to begin breaking down - either as T’Lir cries when they see the crystalline entities for the first time, or when they keep repeating their mantra to stay grounded and corporeal. The audience could slowly be let into the secret… so that by the time we got to this reveal, it felt like it didn’t invalidate the character you knew, but rather enhanced them.

Collin Kelly: That question of whether T’Lir is the person the audience has grown to care about - and how much their Organian identity means to them - is right at the center of what makes this story tick. They didn’t just *become* a fully adult Vulcan - they were born, they were raised, they’ve lived a full life, all with the memory of another life - another person - under their skin. To help clue the audience in, every issue of this arc will feature a page from T’Lir’s personal journal, one they were keeping when they were still one of the Organians that were actually on the planet to meet Kirk and Spock during that species’ first appearance in “Errand of Mercy.” In those, readers will find a full story for T’Lir… one that will have huge consequences as we get to the end of this arc.

SR: So with one gigantic twist comes another: a journey to the Pleroma, why Sisko is forbidden from attending, and even a search for Wesley Crusher... what made these strands of god-level Trek lore stand out for you to dig into, and find spaces within the existing timeline to further flesh out?

Jackson Lanzing: That interaction between advanced beings and evolved humanity is at the very core of what makes Star Trek, well, Star Trek. It’s been there since the first two episodes - “The Cage” tells us all about how technology might be used to dominate us and change our very reality, while “Where No Man Has Gone Before” asks us what it means for a human to achieve that kind of reality-warping power. We knew from the start that this would be the center of our run.

Collin Kelly: Exactly. These were plot lines that we have wanted to dive into since the very first outline - in fact, of all the stories we planned to tell, “Pleroma” is the tale most crucial to paying off the first arc and establishing momentum for what comes next. As for Wesley, we owe that entirely to PICARD - while we always knew that Wesley became a Traveler, the world only recently learned that the Travelers are ALSO part of the Supervisors, which we established in Star Trek: Year Five as the leadership of the time-and-space caretakers known as Aegis. Now, Aegis was our villain in Year Five - which folks can read in the extraordinary hardcovers IDW has begun releasing - but their context has changed after that story. Are they friend, foe, or something in between? With Beverly on our crew, and the blessing of Paramount, the opportunity to reunite mother and (first born) child was too good to pass up. Jackson Lanzing: As for why Sisko *very specifically* isn’t invited to this gathering of Gods… read on.

Bringing in a new plot involving Section 31 is a bombshell on its own, but to name that character "Sloan," and recruiting one of Sisko's crew?! For the fans who already know the group's deal, what about this new wrinkle do you want fans to be asking, speculating, or worrying about until the next issue?

Jackson Lanzing: As with everything Section 31, that is extremely classified. What I’ll note is the character’s not named Sloan - they just use Sloan’s authorization. Maybe he’s gained a certain notoriety among the Section 31 agent community? Maybe there are those who wish he’d been able to go further? Collin Kelly: As for what’s going on with Section 31, fans might actually find more of a hint in the distant past than in their recent actions in the Dominion War…

SR: Your editor Heather Antos has teased that the next chapter of your Star Trek opus will go "beyond the human mind's wildest imagination." That's a grand scope, so any further details or teases you can offer about where these next chapters fit into the larger Trek tapestry?

Collin Kelly: First you ask about Section 31, then you ask about secrets? Is this a set up!? What we can say is that this arc is the start of something incredible - not just for our book, but for the casts of Star Trek: Defiant and Sons of Star Trek as well. This line is truly telling an interwoven story - and the time is drawing near to reveal the secret shape of what’s to come. Jackson Lanzing: You don’t tell a story about the fragile nature of spacetime without breaking a few realities. Strap in - there’s never been a Star Trek story as grand, as unified, or as catastrophic as the one we’re building to. You thought Day of Blood was a big event? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Star Trek #19 is available now from IDW Publishing.

Star Trek is one of pop culture's biggest multimedia franchises, spanning multiple movies, TV shows, books, comics, video games, and various other media. The franchise was created by Gene Roddenberry and started with the 1960s TV series starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Over the decades, several equally popular series have come out since as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Discovery.