VULCAN

by Pete Holly

It's interesting that Gene Rodenberry,who created the original "Star Trek" television
series and was responsable for much of the shows creative ideas,names and futuristic
devices(such as the phaser and particle beaming}choose the name "Vulcan" for the race
"Spock"{Leonard Nimoy}was desended of from-who dwelled on a distant planet in another
solar system."Spock";as a Vulcan has both many similar traits to those of human beings
and many characteristics decidedly differant from those of human beings-both physical
and mental{The pointed ears as a physical example and his strict adherance to using only
logic in his decision making process as a mental example}
The word "Vulcan" comes ancient roman times where "Vulcan" was the god of fire.
In 1859 Joeseph Le Verrier,Proffesser of Astronomy in Paris and director of the Paris
Observatory noticed that the eliptical orbit of Mercury around the sun seem to vary
more than gravity alone could explain.He therefore therorized that a planet so small
it could not be observed existed between Mercury and the Sun and that explained
the excessive varience in Mercury's eliptical orbit.He named the planet "Vulcan".
Though a few pseudo-scientists claimed to have spotted "Vulcan" Le Verrier nor
any other qualified astronomer ever did.It turned out that such a planet did not exist.
The excessive variance in Mercury's orbit was finally explained by Einstien's theory that
space-time alters the movements of objects with a large mass such as Mercury and the sun.
Le Verrier can take credit for deducing the existance of Neptune which turned out to
be only one degree away from where he predicted it would be.Pretty Impressive !