Lookin' For Vulcans in All the Outer Spaces

[Tuckerfan]

Real life search for Spock.

NASA’s upcoming planet-finding mission SIM PlanetQuest will scan the star system 40 Eridani for signs of a habitable planet.

If found, that planet would be the real-life counterpart of the fictional planet of “Vulcan,” well-known in the “Star Trek” universe as the home of Admiral (formerly Mr.) Spock and the entire Vulcan race.

The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) PlanetQuest, which is overseen by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and slated to launch in 2015, is an orbiting interferometer that will link a pair of telescopes to function as a much larger “virtual telescope.”

Naturally, the soulless bastids at the IAU will prevent them from naming a planet in the area “Vulcan.”

[John_DiFool]

You know, I wonder how society will react to the discovery of a seemingly life-bearing planet (a previous discussion here came to the consensus that any evidence we find will be circumstantial of course not definitive). It may not be aliens and UFOs exactly but it would be highly intriguing to me at least. I fear most of the planet might greet the news with a collective yawn tho.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

You’re probably right. Unless there are mile-wide ships parked above the Empire State Building and the White House, it’s hard to get John Q. Public interested in this kinda stuff.

The original NASA announcement: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/newworlds/Vulcan_Planet.html

The imaging power of this system is amazing.

[Duke_of_Rat]

I think it’d be (for the normal John Q) “Cool! A planet only 16 light years away”.

Then “Oh, it’d take 53,000 years to get there at the speed our best ion propulsion engines can go, nevermind”.

Having something powerful enough to actually spot a planet 16 light years away would be amazing. I’m still in awe of the Hubble shots of The Pillars of Creation in The Eagle Nebula and I’ll never get to visit those, either.

In fact, scientists seem to think the Pillars of Creation are already destroyed.

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

Hmm… reminds me of the recent discovery of Kryptonite.

[BrainGlutton]

@Tuckerfan

Naturally, the soulless bastids at the IAU will prevent them from naming a planet in the area “Vulcan.”

Gotta save the name for this one, if and when.

[BrainGlutton]

@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor

Hmm… reminds me of the recent discovery of Kryptonite.

Has it actually been discovered?

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

@BrainGlutton

Has it actually been discovered?

There was a mineral discovered…

Kryptonite

In Superman Returns, an additional piece of kryptonite is found in a rock fragment, once more in Addis Ababa. Lex Luthor steals it from a Metropolis museum and uses it in his quest to create a new kryptonite landmass. During the extraction process, the rock appears to hold a significant amount of green kryptonite. The scientific name for the rock was displayed on its case, ‘Sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide with fluorine’. As borosilicate glass is commonly crystalline and green-tinted, this could be a plausible human mis-identification of kryptonite; alternately, as no ‘unknown’ component is listed, one might assume this (sodium/lithium/borosilicate/fluorine) blend to be the actual composition of green kryptonite. Though more likely, the researchers who performed the analysis of the fragment did not perform a core sample test. They may have only chipped off the outer layer in order to test it.

Amazingly, in April 2007 it was announced that geologists in Serbia had found a mineral identified as having the chemical formula sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide.[1] But instead of the large green crystals in Superman comics, the real thing is a white, powdery substance which contains no fluorine and isn’t radioactive. The mineral, to be named Jadarite (after Jadar, the location of the Serbian mine where it was discovered), will go on show at the London Natural History Museum.[2]

Scientific American–

http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=kryptonite_discovered_adamantium_remains&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&showComments=1