Vulcan salute

The gesture was devised by Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy as a salute for the alien Vulcan species, and is popular within the science fiction fandom and nerd culture.

[2][3] Others often greeted Nimoy with the Vulcan sign,[4] which became so well known that in June 2014 its emoji character was added to version 7 of the Unicode standard as U+1F596 🖖 RAISED HAND WITH PART BETWEEN MIDDLE AND RING FINGERS.

)[7] U.S. President Barack Obama referenced the Vulcan salutation in his statement on Nimoy's death, calling it "the universal sign for 'Live long and prosper'".

[8] The following day, NASA astronaut Terry W. Virts posted a photo on his Twitter feed from the International Space Station showing the salutation (with the Earth in the background) as the ISS passed over where Nimoy grew up – Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

[10] A Vulcan translation – "dif-tor heh smusma" – was introduced in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

[18] In Trilby by George du Maurier, published in 1894, a description of an art student ends with the sentence, "May he live long and prosper!

Leonard Nimoy demonstrating the Vulcan salutation at the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention in 2011
The blessing gesture which is the inspiration for the Vulcan salutation