Talk:40 Eridani

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[edit] Infobox

Unless the browser fills a display, that wide infobox is going to crowd out the text from the lead section. The resulting appearance is less than aesthetically pleasing. Can the width be reduced in some manner? Thank you. — RJH (talk) 21:46, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Star Trek connection

The first hint that Vulcan orbited 40 Eridani was in the James Blish novelization of the 1967 episode "Amok Time", but it would be 37 years before it was "canonized" on-screen. In the meantime, no clear indication was given of Vulcan's location - it was certainly in Earth's "stellar neighbourhood" and easily reached in a few days or hours depending on the warp speed limit of a ship. Spock indicated that his world's sun was extremely bright, which muddies the issue since a K-type star would not be as bright as a G-type star, and a star such as Fomalhaut or Sirius would be indicated.

The issue was finally settled in 2004 when Trip Tucker mentioned about traveling 16 light years to get to Vulcan, attaching to the assorted other references in Star Trek lore that consistently mention Eridanus as the location. 40 Eridani is the right distance, and harkens back to James Blish's novel. James Blish, in turn, used earlier drafts of scripts for his novelizations, so it is possible that in an earlier draft, Kirk does indeed tell USAF Capt. Christopher that Vulcan orbits 40 Eridani, but for whatever reason, that dialogue was removed before the final shooting script. GBC (talk) 04:41, 21 February 2008 (UTC)