Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2021

46 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2021 ASTRO PUBLISHING generated some avoidable discrep- ancies in the scripts. Today, we know that there are probably hundreds of billions of wandering planets, whizzing freely around our galaxy. Some of them may have the right size and an ade- quate source of internal heat to generate a habitat suitable for the emergence and development of life. Even Earth-sized moons, orbiting gas giants, could offer conditions suitable for life. If the Andersons had imagined this scenario, they could have created an even more re- alistic plot, avoiding resorting to the expedient of exceeding the speed of light, an expedient that Star Trek could not do without, having the Enterprise dart to every corner of the galaxy and beyond.