continued answer part 2:
In TNG "The Price" the system of four large quadrants (as opposed to smaller sized quadrants used in TOS, etc.) was introduced.
And you should probably draw a galactic map to understand all the distances.
Put a dot at the center of the map to represent the mathematical center of the galactic disc and the supper massive black hole there.
And establish a scale of light years and draw concentric circles around the galactic center. Since the Milky Way Galaxy is believed to be somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 thousand light years, the circles should have radii between 50,000 and 75,000 light years from the galactic center.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way
You could put the radii at 50,000, and 55,000, and 60,000, and 65,000, and 70,000, and 75,000 light years to make the diameters of the circles 100,000, and 110,000, and 120,000, and 130,000, and 140,000, and 150,000 light years.
Draw a "vertical" line through the galactic disc from "top" to "bottom" going through the central point, and another, "horizontal" line from "right" to "left" going through the central point at right angles (90 degrees) to the "vertical" line.
Those two lines divide the galaxy into the four major quadrants used in the TOS era. The Alpha Quadrant is the one in the lower left, the Beta Quadrant is in the lower right, the Gamma Quadrant is in the upper left, and the Delta Quadrant is in the upper right.
Earth should be on the line between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.
The distance between the Solar System and the galactic center is given as about 26,400 light years plus or minus 1,000 light years. So put a dot on the line between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants at a distance of 26,400 light years from the galactic center, between two dots 1,000 light years closer and farther from the galactic center.
To be continued:
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MAGolding (1096)
6 years ago
Answer continued part 3 the Barzan Wormhole:
So if you drew a galactic map to scale as instructed in part 2 you will have the four quadrants mapped out and three dots representing Earth on the line between the Alpha and Beta quadrants, the dots being 25,400, 26,400,and 27,400 light years from the galactic central point where the quadrant lines intersect.
DATA: The data from the Barzan's probe of the wormhole are quite impressive, Captain. The wormhole delivered the probe beyond the Denkiri Arm, in the Gamma Quadrant.
PICARD: It would take nearly a century at warp nine to cover that distance.
DATA: The same distance could be achieved in a matter of seconds through the wormhole.
Later two small shuttles, one Federation and one Ferengi, enter the wormhole and emerge on the other side.
DATA: According to the Barzan probe, we should be in the Gamma Quadrant but these readings clearly indicate we are nearly two hundred light years away in sector three five five six of the Delta Quadrant.
LAFORGE: Maybe the Barzan readings were wrong.
DATA: Perhaps the readings were correct. Their probe could have exited the wormhole at a completely different location.
Data and Larforge find indications that this mouth of the Barzan wormhole is unstable and will soon move again, and try to convince the two Ferengi in the Ferengi pod to return before the wormhole mouth moves.
LAFORGE: Damn it, Arridor, we're seventy thousand light years away from our ships. Come on, now. Follow us in. We'll lead you.
The shuttlepod returns through the wormhole and the wormhole mouth moves away, stranding the two Ferengi to die a horrible death unless they can find a habitable planet or someone comes to rescue them.
To be continued:
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MAGolding (1096)
6 years ago
Answer continued part 4 Lost in the Delta Quadrant:
So where were the two Ferengi, Kol and Arridor, stranded in a little shuttlepod in the Delta Quadrant?
Since it was somewhere in the Delta Quadrant less than 200 light years from a place in the Gamma quadrant, draw a line on your galactic map, in the Delta Quadrant, parallel to and 200 light years fromthe line between the Gamma and Delta Quadrants. The Ferengi were lost somewhere between those two lines. On the scale of most galactic maps the 200 light years between the two lines will probably be invisible.
And how far beyond the galactic center were they lost in space? Earth is on the line between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants, on the opposite side of the galactic center from where Kol and Arridor were stranded. There should be three dots on that line, 25,400, 26,400, and 27,400 light years from the galactic center, marking possible positions of Earth and the Solar System.
Arbitrarily decreeing that Barzan should be less than 10,000 light years from Earth, draw two more dots on the line between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. One should be 25,400 light years from the galactic center minus 10,000 light years, or 15,400 light years. Laforge's 70,000 light years could be 60,000 to 80,000 light years. Subtracting 15,400 light years from that puts the place where Kol and Arridor were lost 44,600 to 64,600 light years beyond the galactic center.
Draw another dot on the line between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants, 10,000 light years beyond the dot that is 27,400 light years from the galactic center, and thus 37,400 light years from the galactic center. Laforge's 70,000 light years could be 60,000 to 80,000 light years. Subtracting 37,400 light years from that puts the place where Kol and Arridor were lost 22,600 to 42,600 light years beyond the galactic center.
And if Barzan is anywhere else within 10,000 light years of Earth they will be lost somewhere in between.
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Volley (3366)
6 years ago
Very interesting stuff, keep 'em coming!
It always freaked me out when Picard said the Federation was 8000 light years across in Star Trek First contact, this would mean it would take ships like 8 years to get from one side to the other, at maximum warp (Warp 9.75). It just doesn't seem practical at all.
And yeah, even though the Federation isn't just flat on a map like we look at our own countries on the world map, 8000 light years is still 8000 light years, it takes time to travel that vast area of space.
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MAGolding (1096)
6 years ago
Answer continued part 5 The Bajoran Wormhole:
As you should remember from part 1, Bajor should be somewhere between 120.00 and 399.99 light years from Earth. As you should remember from part 3, there should be three dots on the line between the Alpha and the Gamma quadrants, 25,400, 26,400, and 27,400 light years from the galactic center, representing possible positions of Earth and the Solar System.
So the possible position of Bajor will be somewhere within a cylinder with a radius of 399.99 light years stretching from 25,400 to 27,400 light years from the galactic center, and with two hemispherical "caps" with radii of 399.99 light years at each end. And on a map of the galaxy it should look like a thick section of the line between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. stretching from 25,001 to 27,799.99 light years from the central point of the galaxy.
In DS9 "Emissary" Sisko and Dax in a runabout accidentally go through a wormhole leading from the Bajoran system:
(The runabout comes out into normal space)
SISKO: Can you get a fix on our coordinates?
DAX: There is a star just under five light years away. No M-class planets Computer, identify closest star system.
COMPUTER: Idran, a ternary system consisting of twin O-type companions.
SISKO: Idran? That can't be right.
DAX: Computer, basis of identification.
COMPUTER: Idran is based on the analysis conducted in the twenty-second century by the Quadros-One probe of the Gamma Quadrant.
SISKO: The Gamma Quadrant? Seventy thousand light years from Bajor? I'd say we just found our way into a wormhole.
In DS9 "Captive Pursuit"Tosk comes through the wormhole from the Gamma Quadrant:
SISKO: That was one of our patrol vessels. You've travelled almost ninety thousand light years. What planet do you come from?
In "Battle Lines" They take Kai Opaka through the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant:
To be continued:
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MAGolding (1096)
6 years ago
Answer continued part 6 The Bajoran Wormhole:
In "Battle Lines" Sisko tells Kai OPaka, on the Gamma Quadrant side of the Bajoran wormhole:
SISKO: The other side of the galaxy, to be precise. The Gamma quadrant is seventy thousand light years from Bajor. It would take our fastest starship over sixty seven years to get here.
And in "The Ship" after several crew members were killed on planet Torga Four in the Gamma Quadrant:
SISKO: And if I had to make the same trade all over again, I would. But five people are dead. Fine men and women who deserved a lot more than to die on some lonely planet fifty thousand light years away from home. When you were at the Academy, was Professor Somak teaching?
In four different episodes Sisko said that the Gamma Quadrant was: "Seventy thousand light years from Bajor?", "almost ninety thousand light years" from Bajor, "seventy thousand light years from Bajor", and "fifty thousand light years away from home".
In part 5 it was said that the Bajoran end of the wormhole should be somewhere on the Alpha/Beta Quadrant line, and between about 25,001 to 27,799.99 light years from the central point of the galaxy.
So we can swing arcs across the Gamma Quadrant from the Gamma/Delta Quadrant line to the Alpha/Gamma Quadrant line, with their centers at the two points on the Alpha/Beta quadrant line that are 25,001 and 27,799.99 light years from the center of the galaxy, and make the arcs 50,000, 60,000, 70,000, 80,000, and 90,000 light years from each of those two central points. Idran and the Gamma Quadrant mouth of the wormhole should be somewhere between the outermost and innermost arcs.
On the Gamma/Delta Quadrant line the arcs should end between 22,200.01 and 64,999 light years from the galactic central point. On the Alpha/Gamma Quadrant line the arcs should end between 43,628.66 and 86,457.79 light years from the galactic central point.
To be continued:
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MAGolding (1096)
6 years ago
Answer continued part 7 The Caretaker array:
So in part six I calculated that arcs swung from Bajor's closest and farthest possible distances from the galactic center would swing through the Gamma Quadrant.
On the Gamma/Delta Quadrant line the arcs should end between 22,200.01 and 64,999 light years from the galactic central point. On the Alpha/Gamma Quadrant line the arcs should end between 43,628.66 and 86,457.79 light years from the galactic central point.
The Gamma Quadrant mouth of the Bajoran wormhole should be somewhere between the innermost and outermost arcs.
Note that if the galactic disc is between 100,000 and 150,000 light years in diameter, the farthest from the galactic central point that it would be possible to get would be between 50,000 and 75,000 light years.
In "Caretaker" the first episode of Star Trek: Voyager, the Caretaker took a Maquis raider and the starship Voyager from the Badlands. The Badlands were a region of dangerous space on the Federation/Cardassian border zone. Voyager stops at DS9 in the Bajoran system and then makes a short trip to the Badlands where it is taken by the Caretaker to the Caretaker Array.
KIM: Captain, if these sensors are working, we're over seventy thousand light years from where we were. We're on the other side of the galaxy.
JANEWAY: You've taken us seventy thousand light years from our home. We have no way back unless you send us, and we won't leave without the others.
In later episodes of the first and second seasons of Voyager, it is said that their distance is: "seventy thousand light years", "seventy thousand light years", "Seventy thousand light years, give or take a few", "seventy thousand light years", "almost seventy thousand light years away", "seventy five thousand light years", "seventy thousand light years", "seventy five thousand light years", and "seventy five thousand light years". They don't seem to make much progress.
To be continued:
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MAGolding (1096)
6 years ago
Answer continued part 8: "False Profits":
In the third season episode "False Profits" the Voyager crew discover the two lost Ferengi from "The Price":
KIM: Apparently, but we've confirmed what nobody knew at the time. The wormhole is fixed in the Alpha Quadrant. But in the Delta Quadrant, it jumps around. It turned out to be worthless.
TUVOK: But the Ferengi were not aware of that, and during a nefarious attempt to secure the wormhole for themselves, they were pulled into it and deposited in the Delta Quadrant.
They discover that even the super fast Voyager could never catch up with the Gamma Quadrant mouth of the Barzan wormhole:
TORRES: The problem is that on this end, it's jumping from point to point so quickly that even at maximum warp, by the time we got to its next probable location, it would be gone.
So the Ferenghi shuttlepod could never have caught up with the wormhole mouth and must have traveled no more than a few light years to find an inhabited planet, and still be no more than 200 light years from the Gamma/Delta Quadrant line, and maybe much less.
If the Badlands were somewhere on the Alpha Gamma Quadrant line, 25,001 to 27,799.99 light years from the galactic central point, and if Voyager was taken 70,000 to 80,000 light years from the Badlands to a point very close to the Gamma/Delta Quadrant line, and if Voyager headed in a straight line for home, the Caretaker Array should be in the Delta Quadrant no more than about 200 light years from the Gamma/Delta Quadrant line, and about 42,200.01 to 54,999 light years from the galactic central point.
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MAGolding (1096)
6 years ago
Answer continued Part 9: "False Profits":
Part 4 put the place where Kol and Arridor were lost as in the Delta Quadrant, less than 200 light years from the Gamma/Delta Quadrant line, and 44,600 to 64,600 light years beyond the galactic center.
Voyager, heading back to the Federation in a presumably straight line, found Kol and Arridor settled in a planet in "False Profits". So presumably the Caretaker Array was also less than about 200 light years on the Delta Quadrant side of the Gamma/Delta Quadrant line. The Caretaker Array was probably about 42,200.01 to 54,999 light years from the galactic central point. And if Voyager traveled about 2,000 light years before finding the Ferengi, their planet should have been about 40,200 to 53,000 light years from the galactic central point.
The farthest points in the Gamma Quadrant from the Caretaker Array should have been on the Alpha/Gamma Quadrant line, and between 51,665 and 93,005.376 light years from the Caretaker Array. Thus no possible location for the Gamma Quadrant mouth of the Bajoran wormhole should have been more than 1.1625 to 1.3286 times farther from the Caretaker Array than the Badlands were.
Ignoring the thickness of the galaxy, a galactic quadrant should have an area of 1.9625 to 4.425 times 10 to the 9th power square light light years if the radius of the galaxy is 50,000 to 75,000 light years, while a semi circle with a radius of 70,000 light years should have an area of 7.7 times 10 to the 9th power square light years, but because of it's different shape would not reach every corner of the Gamma Quadrant.
Thus a majority of the Gamma Quadrant was probably as close or closer, in some places much closer, to the Caretaker Array than the Badlands were, so the episode "False Profits" indicates that not heading toward the Gamma Quadrant mouth of the Bajoran wormhole or even considering it might have been an error.
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[deleted]
6 years ago
I think Kes used some mental manipulation on them all and that's why they chose to head to Earth in a straight line.
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