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Possible Habitable Planet Just 12 Light Years Away
sciencehabit writes "Astronomers have discovered what may be five planets orbiting Tau Ceti, the closest single star beyond our solar system whose temperature and luminosity nearly match the sun's. If the planets are there, one of them is about the right distance from the star to sport mild temperatures, oceans of liquid water, and even life (paper)."
The math is wrong - Voyager I is 0.71 light days away, or 0.0019 light years away. It will take a lot longer than 840 years to get to another star.
The Vulcans came from the habitable planet that orbited Tau Ceti, according to my Starfleet Technical Manual. Given that they invented the Prime Directive, they probably have to maintain radio silence (frex, using very directional masers where necessary for radio-band communications) to avoid clueing in lesser civilizations.
Plus the Andorians live right next to them and we all know what they are like.
He had foreseen this. The planet around Tau Ceti is called Aurora. It is the home of long-living humans and mind-reading robots.
No, you do mean the inverse square law. The inverse square law states that the intensity of radio waves (or light) decreases with the square of the distance to the source. The square-cube law is about the surface relative to the volume: The surface increases with the square of the size, while the volume increases with the cube. This means that the same structure at different sizes would not have the same properties. For example, a giant ant would not be able to get enough oxygen, as its ability to get oxygen follows its surface area, while its oxygen demand follows its volume. Likewise, it would be crushed under the weight of its own exoskeleton, as its strength is proportional to the square of the size, while its weight is proportional to the cube.