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Sol system

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"We, the people of Earth, greet you in a spirit of peace and humility. As we venture out of our solar system, we hope to earn the trust and friendship of other worlds."
– Friendship 1 probe, 2067 ("Friendship One")

The Sol system, also known as the Terran system or the solar system, was an inhabited planetary system located within Sector 001 of the Alpha Quadrant. This was the home system of the Human species and, from 2161 to 3089, it was the capital system of the United Federation of Planets.

Components[]

Classified as a single star system, the Sol system consisted of the yellow primary Sol and its nine planets. Seven of the planets had moons. In addition, there were several dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets.

An asteroid belt separated the system into an inner system and an outer system. The inner system had four terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The outer system had four gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The outermost terrestrial planet in the Sol system was Pluto. In the far reaches of the system, smaller dwarf planets existed. The system also contained a high number of comets, the orbits of which could take them both into the inner and outer solar system. (TOS: "The Cage", "Tomorrow is Yesterday"; TAS: "One of Our Planets Is Missing"; DIS: "The War Without, The War Within": Star Trek: The Motion Picture; Star Trek Generations)

Although its real-life categorization has been changed to a dwarf planet, Pluto has so far only ever been described as a planet on Star Trek. None of the other known dwarf planets have been referenced on-screen, although Starbase 1 is implied to orbit an unidentified dwarf planet in the far reaches of the Sol system in 2257 during the Federation-Klingon war.
The Kuiper belt and Oort cloud are scientifically defined areas in the outer reaches of the Solar system. In Star Trek, regions with these names have so far only appeared on-screen in alien star systems.

History[]

Earth

Earth (Sol III)

The Sol system was approximately 5 billion years old. (VOY: "Death Wish")

An ancient species of humanoids injected genetic material into Earth's primordial soup approximately four billion years ago. Life appeared on the planet 500 million years later. Aside from Earth-based life, Martian fossils revealed that life once existed on other planets in the Sol system. (TNG: "The Last Outpost", "Datalore", "The Chase", "All Good Things...")

A comet collided with the planet Earth approximately 65 million years ago. With the end of the dinosaur era brought about by this mass extinction event, mammals rose to prominence. Humans, one of those mammalian species, established a civilization on their home planet. By 2373, a small group of Voth scientists believed that their species evolved from hadrosaurs on Earth before fleeing the Sol system and heading for the Delta Quadrant. (VOY: "Distant Origin")

Starting in the mid-20th century, Humans began the process of exploring and eventually colonizing their home system. Renée Picard was an astronaut who had a large role to play in the exploration of the system during this time. In the mid-22nd century, amid the Xindi crisis, it was already expected that a residual presence of Humans would remain in the Sol system, even after the destruction of Earth. By the late 24th century, Humans were living on Venus, Luna, Mars, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Terraforming efforts were underway to make planets such as Venus and Mars more hospitable for humanoid life. (TOS: "Return to Tomorrow", "By Any Other Name"; DS9: "Past Tense, Part I"; VOY: "One Small Step"; ENT: "Strange New World", "Azati Prime", "Terra Prime"; PIC: "The Star Gazer")

Habitable space-based facilities such as starbases and spacedocks had been built in orbits around Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and smaller planetary bodies in the outer Sol system, in addition to planetary settlements. (VOY: "Relativity", "Life Line"; DIS: "The War Without, The War Within"; SNW: "Strange New Worlds")

In 2257, the Sol system came under attack by Klingon forces near the end of the Federation-Klingon War. Members of the House of D'Ghor attacked and occupied Starbase 1, orbiting a planetary body in the outer reaches of the system. A short time later, a Klingon fleet moved towards Earth, only disengaging their attack after a sudden armistice had been declared by the new Chancellor L'Rell. (DIS: "The War Without, The War Within", "Will You Take My Hand?")

The planetary body which Starbase 1 orbited remained unnamed. Given its distance of a hundred au from Earth, it is likely a dwarf planet in the scattered disc of the Sol system.

In 2293, the maiden voyage of the USS Enterprise-B was planned as a tour around the Sol system, with the ship traveling past Pluto and then returning to spacedock. However, the flight plan was abandoned when the Enterprise received a distress call from the SS Lakul. (Star Trek Generations)

In 2367, a Borg cube crossed the Sol system, easily eliminating the Mars Defense Perimeter, a last line of defense for the inner planets of the system. The cube was later destroyed in orbit of Earth. (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II")

In 2370, the Sol system was listed on the Deep Space 9 arrival roster as the point of departure for the USS Hispaniola. (DS9: "Whispers" okudagram)

In 2371, a microscopic singularity passed through the system and exploded. (DS9: "Past Tense, Part I")

The Borg maintained a transwarp conduit with an aperture less than a light year away from Earth. The conduit was collapsed by the USS Voyager in 2378. (VOY: "Endgame")

In an alternate timeline, all major inhabited planets and colonies in the Sol system were destroyed by the Xindi weapon. This ended when the Enterprise NX-01 crew sacrificed themselves to change the future by erasing interspatial parasites from Jonathan Archer, allowing him to remain in command and find and destroy the weapon. (ENT: "Twilight")

In another alternate timeline, the entire Sol system was destroyed in a temporal explosion when Henry Starling took the timeship Aeon from the 20th century to the 29th century without properly calibrating the temporal matrix. This event nearly happened but was stopped when Captain Janeway manually fired a photon torpedo from Voyager at the Aeon as it entered the temporal rift, destroying it and killing Starling. (VOY: "Future's End", "Future's End, Part II")

Artistic Depictions[]

Classroom painting 2369

A painting of the star system

Deep Space 9's classroom featured a painting of four planets of the Sol system including Earth and Saturn. (DS9: "The Nagus")

A year later, this classroom featured the poster "The Solar System", which depicted the whole system. (DS9: "Cardassians")

Stellar Cartography[]

The Sol system was in the Alpha Quadrant. The Alpha Centauri system and the Wolf system were two of the star systems that were located in its immediate neighborhood. The Sol system was about sixteen light years from Vulcan and fewer than ninety light years from Qo'noS. (TNG: "The Last Outpost", "The Best of Both Worlds"; ENT: "Broken Bow", "Two Days and Two Nights", "Home"; Star Trek: Insurrection)

In the star charts seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek Into Darkness, and in Star Trek: Discovery, the Sol system was shown to be in the Alpha Quadrant and far from the Alpha-Beta Quadrant border. However, in the star chart seen in Star Trek: Picard, the Sol system was depicted as being at the boundary line between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. A PADD created for Star Trek: Insurrection, but not seen clearly in the film, also depicted this location of the Sol system at this boundary line. [1]
In "Two Days and Two Nights", the NX-class Enterprise set a milestone several months after the mission to Qo'noS ("Broken Bow") by becoming the first Earth ship to travel ninety light years away from the Sol system, thus placing an upper boundary on the distance between Earth and the Klingon homeworld. However, the star chart seen in Star Trek: Picard has Qo'noS being located over 100 light years from the Sol system.

Maps of the Solar System[]

In the late 19th century, the inner system was depicted on a German map of the inner system. (Star Trek: Enterprise, opening credits)

In 2024, a map of the solar system was depicted on a backlit panel seen at the gala for the Europa Mission astronauts. (PIC: "Two of One")

In 2254, the inner system was depicted on a map, which was stored in the USS Enterprise library computer. This was one of the records scanned by the Talosians. (TOS: "The Cage" production art)

In 2267, "Chart 14A: The Sol System", which was stored in the Enterprise library computer, was a map of the Sol system. This chart was scanned by the probe Nomad in auxiliary control. (TOS: "The Changeling" production art)

Star charts[]

In the 2150s, this system's position was labeled on an United Earth star chart which was displayed in several crew and guest quarters aboard the Enterprise. (Star Trek: Enterprise, set decoration)

In 2258, the system's location was labeled on a star chart seen on the main viewscreen of the USS Enterprise. (DIS: "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2")

In 2259, the location of this system was labeled on a stellar cartography chart that was seen on the USS Enterprise's ready room viewscreen. As the capital system of the Federation, it was represented by the Starfleet Command seal colored blue. (SNW: "Strange New Worlds", "Spock Amok", "A Quality of Mercy")

In the 2270s, the location of Sol, and its largest planet Jupiter, was labeled on a neighborhood of astronomical objects, which was stored in the Enterprise library computer. This was one of the records scanned by V'ger. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture production art)

In 2293, the location of Sol was labeled on a map of the Milky Way Galaxy. This map was on a wall of Captain James T. Kirk's quarters aboard the USS Enterprise-A. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country okudagram)

On stardate 1292.4, this system's position was labeled in a chart used during a Section 31 Alpha Team briefing. (Star Trek: Section 31)

In 2364, the location of Sol was labeled in a star chart, which showed the distance of this sun to neighboring stars in light years. This record was stored in the USS Enterprise-D library computer. The Portal of Outpost 63 scanned this record that year. (TNG: "The Naked Now", "The Last Outpost" production art)

The system's location was labeled in a Federation star chart that was in Fleet Admiral Kirsten Clancy's office at Starfleet Headquarters in 2399 and on the bridge of the USS Titan-A in 2401. Sol system was in or near to Federation space. (PIC: "Maps and Legends", "The Next Generation", "Disengage")

In 2401, the location of Sol was labeled on a star chart that was seen on the USS Stargazer's bridge viewscreen. The chart was used to show the location of the combined Starfleet-Borg armada and where it needed to go to face a galactic-level threat. (PIC: "Farewell")

Later that year, this system's position was labeled on a star chart used by Captain William T. Riker during his attempt at finding the last known location of the SS Eleos XII. (PIC: "The Next Generation")

The Sol System
Sol
Mercury • Venus • Earth (Luna) • Mars (Deimos) • Asteroid belt • Jupiter (Io; Ganymede; Europa) • Saturn (Mimas; Rhea; Titan) • Uranus • Neptune (Triton) • Pluto

Appendices[]

Background information[]

A map of the galaxy created for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual (p. 2) was reused on a PADD in the film Star Trek: Insurrection depicted the location of the Sol system. [2] The PADD prop was sold on It's A Wrap! sale and auction. [3]

The chart naming astronomical objects was from the Star Fleet Technical Manual.

The chart naming stars within twenty light years of Sol was drawn by Rick Sternbach for the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology in the late 1970s. Found on page 77, this chart showed Earth's commercial and exploration routes after the use of warp drive began. Sol was a stop on the Alpha Centauri-Epsilon Eridani commercial route.

In the Star Trek: Star Charts (p. 19), although the Sol system was located in the exact corner of the sector and was thus divided equally among all eight sectors, it was considered to be in Sector 001 for purposes of celestial navigation. Similarly, while the Sol system was divided equally between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, it was considered to be part of the Alpha Quadrant.

The star chart seen in the series Star Trek: Enterprise made its first appearance in Crewman Daniels quarters in "Cold Front". It was also seen in several other episodes of the series, from 2151 to 2154 (For more information, see Federation star charts#United Earth Alpha/Beta star chart)

Apocrypha[]

The real-world debate on the status of Pluto as a planet was referenced in the novel Before Dishonor. Star Trek Online established that Sol had eight planets in the system's description. Both Pluto and the unnamed Starbase 1 planet were represented in-game alongside the other planets, indicating that the two were considered dwarf planets in the 23rd and 25th centuries.

In The Worlds of the Federation, there was a tenth planet beyond Pluto.

External links[]

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