40 Eridani A

40 Eridani A, also known by the proper name Keid, was one of three stars in the Vulcan system. This orange dwarf star had its own planetary system.

The star had three planets – the binary planets Ni'Var and T'Khut and 40 Eridani A I – and a dwarf planet – Delta Vega. On the outer reaches of the star's system, there was an asteroid belt that acted as a boundary between this system and 40 Eridani B/C. (ENT: "Cold Front", set decoration; SNW: "Charades", display graphic)

The star was sufficiently bright, as seen from Vulcan's surface, that it caused the evolution of the Vulcan inner eyelid. (ENT: "The Forge"; TOS: "Operation -- Annihilate!")

History[]

In the 24th century, Starfleet operated a shipyard, the 40 Eridani A Starfleet Construction Yards, in the star's vicinity. (TNG: "The Wounded", "Night Terrors"; DS9: "Second Sight" dedication plaques; PIC: "The End is the Beginning")

Stellar cartography[]

Found within Vulcan space in the Vulcan sector, this Beta Quadrant star was approximately 16 light years from Sol. It was visible from Earth in the constellation Eridanus.

Enterprise star chart 2154 — The location of Vulcan (40 Eridani A) on a United Earth star chart, 2154

In the 2150s, this star's position was labeled on an United Earth star chart which was displayed in several crew and guest quarters aboard the Enterprise. (Star Trek: Enterprise, set decoration))

Appendices[]

Appearances[]

References[]

USS Brattain's dedication plaque made for TNG: "Night Terrors"
USS Phoenix' dedication plaque made for TNG: "The Wounded"
USS Prometheus' dedication plaque made for DS9: "Second Sight"
PIC: "The End is the Beginning"

Background information[]

40 Eridani A was first established as the location of Vulcan after a draft of Geoffrey Mandel's reference work Star Trek: Star Charts was used in various ENT episodes, showing the location of "Vulcan (40 Eridani A)."

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

Previously it has been a popular piece of information throughout licensed works and fandom. The reference has worked its way into a number of background graphics and artwork, for example, the dedication plaques listing the fleet construction shipyards there. References to this star system as Vulcan's date back to James Blish's adaptation of "Tomorrow is Yesterday" in the book Star Trek 2, as well as a mention in the Star Fleet Technical Manual which Franz Joseph researched and compiled. On-screen statements of Vulcan being 16 light years away from Earth in "Home" and "Daedalus" also support 40 Eridani A as the location of Vulcan.

The Star Trek Encyclopedia, 4th ed., vol. 1, p. 282 stated that Vulcan orbited the dwarf star 40 Eridani A, which was described as the brightest star of a triple star system.

In 1991, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, along with three scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, endorsed 40 Eridani A as Vulcan's primary (rather than Epsilon Eridani, which is occasionally misidentified as Vulcan's primary) stating, in part: "We prefer the identification of 40 Eridani as Vulcan's sun because of what we have learned about both stars at Mount Wilson ... based on the history of life on Earth, life on any planet around Epsilon Eridani would not have had time to evolve beyond the level of bacteria. On the other hand, an intelligent civilization could have evolved over the aeons on a planet circling 40 Eridani. So the latter is the more likely Vulcan sun." [2]

There was further information on this star from the Star Trek: Star Charts, (pp. 18, 19, 36, 45, 58, and 60) and Stellar Cartography: The Starfleet Reference Library ("Stellar Cartography" pp. 14-15, 17, 22-24, 34, 36, and 46; "The Dominion War: Strategy and Battles, 2373-75"). The star 40 Eridani A was classified as an orange dwarf star with an absolute magnitude of 6.0. This star was 400 astronomical units (AUs) from the binary pair of 40 Eridani B and C.

Two thousand years ago, the 40 Eridani A system was a stop on the Debrune trade routes. On his final voyage, in 2120, Zefram Cochrane visited this system. In the 2150s this system was in the Earth Trading/Exploration Region, with it being a stop on the Earth trade routes. This system was threatened by the Dominion after they occupied Benzar in 2375.

The star chart seen in the series Star Trek: Enterprise made its first appearance in Crewman Daniels quarters in "Cold Front". It was also seen in several other episodes of the series, from 2151 to 2154. (For more information, see Federation star charts#United Earth Alpha/Beta star chart)

The current location of 40 Eridani A in the Beta Quadrant was based on the most recent star charts seen in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Section 31.

In 2018, 40 Eridani A was confirmed to have at least one planet orbiting it, albeit a "super-Earth" orbiting too close to the star to support life. [3] It is now believed by astronomers that the signals indicating a planet were false positive as they were the byproduct of the activity of 40 Eridani A.

Apocrypha[]

The Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual referenced the Vulcan species as "Homo eridani."

External links[]

40 Eridani at Wikipedia
NASA: The Search for Spock's Home
Omicron² Eridani at the Internet Stellar Database
40 Eridani at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works