User:Wormulon/Star Trek, a scientific analysisedit this page

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference

I like Star Trek, as much as I like other sci-fi's, but I also like science. The writers of Star Trek, I have noticed, pay much attention to real-world science for their stories. So lets take a look at some of the scientific references.

I have provided links to Wikipedia.

[edit] Astronomical objects and anomalies

• Astral eddy - Lagoon Nebula: The Lagoon nebula contains an O-type star that ionizes surrounding gases creating funnels and twists that are similar to an eddy or tornado.
• Badlands or the Briar Patch - H II region: Nebulae can contain fierce phenomena such as cosmic bullets, Herbig-Haro stars, T Tauri stars, accretion disks and cosmic masers, which can be found following the link.
• Black cluster - Massive compact halo object: MACHO's are clusters of neutron stars or white dwarfs, black holes, brown dwarfs and other dim stars, they may provide a solution to dark matter.
• Cosmic string - Cosmic string: One of several kinds of Topological defects. Also known as solitons, these are defects in the fabric of spacetime which have extraordinary density. When the universe formed it underwent a phase transition, but defects such as cracks and fractures may have formed.
• Delphic Expanse - False vacuum: A false vacuum is an unstable region of spacetime created by random particle fluctuations, the wrong kind can coming crashing through the universe, obliterating all matter without any forewarning. Scary.
• Galactic barrier - The galactic barrier is similar to several different phenomena in the real universe, an example is a Domain wall, which is a kind of topological defect. They may divide the universe into cells, splitting incompatible regions of spacetime with completely different laws of physics separate. These walls act as barriers and can even form where two universes are colliding. A phenomenon closer to home is the Heliosphere, a bubble created when solar wind contacts the interstellar medium in the outer most limits of star systems such as our own.
• Null space - Trapped null surface
• Particle fountain - White hole: A particle fountain is similar to a white hole. A white hole is the reverse of a black hole (although it is currently theoretical). Anything in a white hole's way would be obliterated by the intense gushing of energy they emit.
• Protouniverse and Subspace realities - Multiverse: In the cosmic inflation theory, some regions of spacetime stop expanding, instead they forms bubbles, a "froth" of different bubbles form, each one a baby universe expanding into its own domain.
• Tear in the fabric of space While General relativity states you cannot rip spacetime, quantum physics states that spacetime becomes jittery and chaotic, tears can occur. Then bubbles of spacetime cover up these tears, forming tiny Wormholes.
• Trimetric fracture - Dark flow: Astronomers have found that the motion of some of the galaxy clusters are moving towards a patch of sky between the Centaurus and Vela constellations. Some scientists believe that our universe is colliding with another universe. between the two very different universes, a domain wall may have formed, holding the two universes apart. Just like the overlapping of chaotic space and normal space as seen in a trimetric fracture. A similar phenomenon is the CMB cold spot.