Talk:Milky Way Galaxy

Galactic core
If you quote Star Trek V, you might also mention there's a super-powerful being in the core, trapped on a lone planet, trying to get out. But you've also mentioned that the core is inhabited by a black hole. Which is it? Redge 14:47, 5 Jun 2004 (CEST)


 * Couldn't we have both? How big is this area that is being called the core? Tyrant 23:53, 27 Jan 2005 (CET)Tyrant


 * But if you watch Star Trek V you will see that this being is killed and soo, no longer exists. Dico 20:44, 2 Aug 2005 (GMT)


 * In real life there is a supermassive black hole, it's named Sagittarius A– Alexlyoko13 21:48, December 22, 2009 (UTC)


 * As I recall, there is no canonical mention of a supermassive blackhole. Instead we have a creation point in the 2260s and after that the "Sha Ka Ree" in the 2280s. I moved the notion of a black hole to a bgnote as it isn't canon and contradicts canon. --Pseudohuman 23:00, December 22, 2009 (UTC)

Map would be nice
Exactly what the title says.--The All-knowing Sith&#39;ari 21:28, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
 * To my recollection, there is no full Milky Way map that has been shown in canon. On the other hand, there is an Alpha and Beta Quadrant star chart located at File:The Explored Galaxy.jpg. Hope this helps. :) - Adm. Enzo Aquarius...I'm listening 21:32, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Do you think we could throw one together based on LCARS displays, existing maps, and dialogue?--The All-knowing Sith&#39;ari 12:40, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Shots taking place outside the Galaxy
I was just wondering exactly how many times did a Star Trek episode show the ship leave the galaxy. The only two which come to mind at the moment are and. Are there any others? --Nmajmani 23:25, 12 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Under its own power (barring acts of Q)? Maybe fluidic space counts as extra-galactic? Or what about Tom Paris on his transwarp shuttle test flight reaching every point in the universe? I guess it depends whether you think that ever really happened... SwishyGarak 20:15, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, I am not sure Q ever pushed them out of the galaxy (I haven't seen every show, so I woudn't know. I do count transwarp, so I guess I'll count Paris's adventure.  Mostly, I am interested where they are physically out of the galaxy, and not in transwarp.-Nmajmani 20:33, 14 August 2007 (UTC)Nmajmani


 * Also in the TOS episode Where no man has gone before. The Enterprise crossed the barrier at the edge of the universe exactly like they did in . -Davisn456 01:57, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
 * No, they didn't cross it - they approached it. 76.247.104.207 03:30, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Inhabitants list
I am tempted to remove the list of "inhabitants". Currently it reads as saying there are many thousands of races, and then listing some "influential" ones. This seems highly POV and subjective to me. For example, why list Kazon or Trill and not Vidiian or Hirogen, or Gorn? Hell, the Tzenkethi and the Talarians were major enough for the Federation to fight wars with, the Prophets are listed, yet the Organians who influenced the history of an entire quadrant a century before aren't. As I said, this list seems entirely subjective and POV to me, and also not that useful. The fact is that with very small exception, basically every race mentioned in Trek is a Milky Way inhabitant. Yes, some exceptions, but probably less than countable on two hands. If there is no objection, I will remove this list. --OuroborosCobra talk 04:05, 2 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Agreed. – Cleanse 05:40, 2 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Done. -- Cid Highwind 12:54, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

"Gaps" in the galaxy, in between arms
Our Milky Way Galaxy is a spiral galaxy, with the greatest density of stars in the arms of the spirals. The galaxy is supposed to be divided into quadrants. With that division, there are "parts" of spiral arms in each quadrant, but there should also be large gaps between the arms, right?

I guess my question is...where are they? Most accepted maps of the Alpha/Beta quadrants have the Federation in the middle, straddling the border between quadrants, and the Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Tholians, Gorn, etc surrounding Federation territory.

Is it that all these stars are part of the same spiral arm as Sol? And if that's the case, does it mean the Federation and its neighbors are limited to/enclosed within the same spiral arm?

Could the gaps between arms be something like the Void in Voyager? Star deserts? -- 192.147.57.6 00:29, 9 April 2008 (UTC)


 * It's posible that the void was a star desert but I don't think Voyager would go that far from the center of the galaxy.

Look at the picture of the galaxy. If Voyager is at the top and Earth's at the bottom, why would Voyager go into the voids when you could go around them? --From TrekkyStarOpen Hailing Frequencies 13:48, 9 April 2008 (UTC)


 * The line separating the Alpha and Beta Quadrants runs through the Sol System, and Voyager was sent to an outer-clockwise region of the Delta Quadrant, so the ship did not need to cross through the Galactic Core, indeed, if they hadn't encountered their final short-cut, they would have spent the last leg of their journey traveling through the Beta Quadrant, probably eventually entering the Romulan Star Empire. 82.36.179.20 15:37, 9 April 2008 (UTC)


 * With my primitive knowledge of stars I think that the arm we are on is pretty big about 20000ly thick? So yes, all neighboring races are on our arm. According to the Star Fleet Reference manual, the Tholians were from the arm further out from us - beyond the void, while the Federation hadn't explored beyond the void towards the galactic center, so were bounded in some sense. "The Void" in voyager was pretty small in galactic terms, and we get these all over the place in the galaxy. When stars form, they do so about 100 at a time as a stellar cluster forming from a collapsing nebula. As all stars are formed this way, they tend to appear in clumps surrounded by voids. Our star is surrounded by three so called 'Rings' like this.
 * But don't be misled by the idea of arms and voids - arms have more stars, but between the arms it is far from a desert, perhaps 1/3 the number. Hope that helps :-) Any more questions? -- Jamie 12/4/2008 2208

Population estimate
Was it ever mentioned how many individual sentients live in the galaxy. I know in the Star Wars world it was somewhere in the order of several quadrillion, but I'm fairly certain the Milky Way galaxy has substantially less then that, at least based on what I've seen. 71.76.182.156 01:02, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

This depends on how you interpret the facts. Dr McCoy estimated three-million Earth-type worlds in "Balance of Terror" and T'Pol estimated that 1 in 43,000 planets supports intelligent life in "Fight or Flight". Given those estimates, and assuming that Earth's population in the Year 2000 (six-thousand-million) is typical, you have an upper limit of 18,000,000,000,000,000 assuming that all Earth-type planets are populated. Assuming 1 in 43,000 of them are inhabited (which suggests only 69 inhabited planets!!!) there is a lower limit of 418,604,651,162. The 'true' figure is likely to be somewhere in-between. At least my estimates are within five orders of magnitude.--Indefatigable 21:54, January 12, 2010 (UTC)