Star Trek notes

• Romulus

  The star I picked for Romulus doesn't work so that will change in the future. HD 117635 is a spectroscopic binary with a period that would make a stable orbit in either star's habitable zone impossible. The Hipparcos data that far out is incomplete and the distances not very accurate, so I'll need to pull in Gaia data.

• Rigel

  Turns out there are two Rigels in Star Trek, and I don't think either of them are Beta Orionis. That star is too young to have terrestrial planets, let alone habitable ones.

  • "Near" Rigel

    This is the one that was on the way to the Klingon Empire in Enterprise, no more than a few dozen light years away. Also the one mentioned as the heading of the Doomsday Machine, with Earth "not far beyond". Star Charts calls this Beta Rigel.

    We don't name stars that way, but there are two other stars with traditional names starting with Rigel, and the closer one is in about the right place. This is Mu Virginis, Rigel Al Awwa, so I've picked that one for the "near" Rigel.

  • "Far" Rigel

    This is the one that we saw in the Original Series and in Mudd's Women. Rigel Al Musalsalah (Gamma And) is at the right distance so I'm calling that one "far" Rigel.

    Now this star has the official name of Almach according to the IAU, but it is a multiple star system and the name only applies to the primary star. Sometimes other stars in the system are given alternate traditional names for the system (Rigel Kentaurus and Toliman, for example) so it's possible that Gamma-2 Andromedae would be given this alternate name.

• Deneb

  Similar to Rigel, there are two Denebs. The near one was mentioned in TOS, and the far one is Farpoint station from TNG. Again, Alpha Cygni is too young to have a terrestrial planet.

  • "Near" Deneb

    Mentioned in TOS as Deneb II and V. Star Charts calls this Deneb Kaitos so I went with that.

  • "Far" Deneb

    Epsilon Delphini was sometimes called Deneb Dulfim and might be far enough away, but today it has the official name Aldulfin and no known companions. I think this one was intended to be Alpha Cygni so I may change it back.