In Star Trek, this star is also home to the planet Vulcan. First announced in 2018, the planet caused quite a stir thanks to its similarities with Spock's fictional home planet.

This isn’t the first time a planet has turned out to be an illusion; in 2014, two planets orbiting a star 20 light years away — Gliese 581d and Gliese 581g — turned out not to exist, either.

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' season 2, episode 4, "Among the Lotus Eaters," Captain Pike's Enterprise returns to Rigel VII after scans show a Starfleet insignia on the planet.

One is a documentary series on BBC America called "Planet Earth: Asia." The other is a science fiction made-for-TV movie, "Star Trek: Section 31," on Paramount+.

New research shows that a planet spotted around the real-life star 40 Eridani A, famous for hosting Dr. Spock's fictional home world in 'Star Trek', may have been an optical illusion all along.