40 Eridani is a trinary star system comprised of a giant primary star, 40 Eridani A. The other two stars in the system are a red dwarf and a white dwarf, 40 Eridani B and 40 Eridani C. The stars of the 40 Eridani group support the Vulcan system, the home system of the Vulcan race and their homeworld of Vulcan. It is visible from Earth in the constellation of Eridanus located about 16.45 light-years distant. (ENT episodes: "Home", "Daedalus"; ST reference: Star Fleet Technical Manual)
- The Starfleet Technical Manual, a licensed work, established the location of Vulcan at 40 Eridani, a real star system that modern astronomers have observed. While the 1973 Technical Manual reference was the earliest description of this system's inhabitation, the system location wasn't established in canon until episodes of Enterprise described the world as being 16 light years from Earth, the real-life measurement of 40 Eridani's distance. The ST reference: Spaceflight Chronology is one source that differed with canon, listing the Vulcan system as orbiting Epsilon Eridani, a system that is not 16 ly away.
According to Starfleet Intelligence outpost maps, this system's coordinates are 0.09N 2.31W, placing it in the Starfleet Intelligence sector 4. (ST module: Star Fleet Intelligence Manual)
Characteristics
Stars, systems and objects of the Eridanus constellation |
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1 Eridani (Tau-1 Eridani) • 3 Eridani (Azha, Eta Eridani) • 13 Eridani (Zibal, Zeta Eridani) • 14 Eridani • 18 Eridani (Delta Orcus, Toredar, Epsilon Eridani) • 23 Eridani (Rana, Delta Eridani) • 34 Eridani (Gamma Eridani, Zaurak) • 38 Eridani (Beid, Omicron-1 Eridani) • 40 Eridani (Keid, Omicron-2 Eridani, Vulcanis) • 59 Eridani • 67 Eridani (Cursa, Beta Eridani) • 82 Eridani • 88 Eridani • 198 Eridani • Alpha Eridani (Achernar) • Beta Eridani (Cursa, 67 Eridani) • Chi Eridani (Caleb, Kaleb) • Delta Eridani (Rana, 23 Eridani) • Epsilon Eridani (Delta Orcus, Toredar, 18 Eridani) • Eta Eridani (Azha, 3 Eridani) • Gamma Eridani (34 Eridani, Zaurak) • Iota Eridani • Omicron-1 Eridani (Beid, 38 Eridani) • Omicron-2 Eridani (Keid, 40 Eridani, Vulcanis) • p Eridani • Tau-1 Eridani (1 Eridani) • Tau Eridani Cloud • Theta Eridani (Acamar) • Zaurak (34 Eridani, Gamma Eridani) • Zeta Eridani (Zibal, 13 Eridani) |
Background notes
- The Worlds of the Federation contradicts Star Trek: Star Charts, as it does not mention the second and third star outside of the asteroid belt. The film Star Trek also established a planet called Delta Vega, which orbited close enough to Vulcan that it could be seen clearly from Delta Vega's surface. According to the novelization of that film, a planet named T'Khul is "the Vulcan system's third world".
Connections
- 40 Eridani article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- 40 Eridani article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.