The Milky Way Galaxy was a galaxy that contained over 400 billion stars. (ENT: "Azati Prime")
The Milky Way's disc was surrounded by a massive energy field of negative energy called the Galactic barrier, which makes travel into and out of the galaxy difficult. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "By Any Other Name")
In 2269, the center of the galaxy was explored and found to be a creation point. By 2287, the core had become surrounded by the Great Barrier, containing a planet thought to be Sha Ka Ree by Sybok. (TAS: "The Magicks of Megas-Tu"; Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
In the science of stellar cartography, the Milky Way was divided into four major areas called quadrants: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta (the first four letters of the Greek alphabet), each of which compose one-quarter of the galaxy.(TNG: "The Price"; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, VOY: "Pathfinder")
By 2267, there were Humans on a thousand planets in the galaxy. (TOS: "Metamorphosis") Between 2064 and 2364, Humans had charted 11% of the galaxy. (TNG: "Where No One Has Gone Before") Within a year, the Federation had charted an additional 8% of the galaxy. (TNG: "The Dauphin")
A map of the Milky Way Galaxy was on display in Astrometrics aboard the USS Voyager from 2377 through 2378. (VOY: "Inside Man", et al.)
In the mid-22nd century, scientists estimated that there was only one out of every 43,000 planets in the galaxy supports intelligent lifeforms. (ENT: "Fight or Flight") A century later, this estimate had been revised. Scientists than theorized that there were millions of planets that could support intelligent life. (TOS: "Metamorphosis" Research expeditions had cataloged hundreds of uninhabited planets in the galaxy that were suitable for colonization. (TOS: "By Any Other Name")
According to Dr. Leonard McCoy, there was a mathematical probability of three million Earth-type planets in the galaxy. (TOS: "Balance of Terror")
An expedition sent by the Kelvan Empire, from the radiation-imperiled Andromeda Galaxy, scouted the Milky Way for possible invasion in 2268. (TOS: "By Any Other Name")
Appendices
Related topics
- Species and cultures, listing all inhabitant species
- Alpha Quadrant
- Beta Quadrant
- Gamma Quadrant
- Delta Quadrant
Background
The Explored Galaxy
This chart was first seen, chronologically, in 2293. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) This chart was also seen in several Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes set in the 24th century, from the year 2364 to 2370. These were: TNG: "Conspiracy", "The Measure Of A Man", "The Emissary", "The Mind's Eye", "The Game" and DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets", "Cardassians".
Star Trek: Star Charts
The Milky Way Galaxy, along with the Andromeda Galaxy, was a member of the Local Group. This galaxy was an hundred thousand (100,000) light years in length. This galaxy was divided into three distinct parts: a galactic core, spiral arms, and a halo. The halo was a dark matter sphere that enveloped the galaxy.
The United Federation of Planets was located 25,000 light years from the galactic core in the Orion Arm. UFP was itself enveloped in a region named the Local Space. This region had a diameter of 1,500 light years.
Specifications for Milky Way:
- Type Sbc
- Age 13 billion years
- Diameter 100,000 years
- Thickness at Center 15,000 light-years
- Stellar Population 500,000 million stars
- Orbital Period of UFP 220 million years
- Mass of Milky Way 875 billion solar masses
- Mass of Sagittarius A 2.6 billion solar masses
- Diameter of Sagittarius A 15 million km
- Companions of Milky Way Large Magellanic Cloud; Small Magellanic Cloud; 200 globular star clusters; Galaxy SagDEG
(Pages 8-11)