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Sol system

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The Sol system, also known as the Terran system and Earth's (star) system, was an inhabited planetary system in the Alpha Quadrant. It was located within a stellar cluster in Sector 001. The Sol system was the capital system of the United Federation of Planets.

Location

The Sol system was located in the Alpha Quadrant. Star systems in its immediate neighborhood included the Alpha Centauri system and the Wolf system. The Sol system was located about sixteen light years from Vulcan and less 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.

Solar system art

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")

Solar system maps

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

A star chart of the Sol system's stellar neighborhood

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")

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 in 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)

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)

In 2399, the location of Sol, and the planet Earth, was labeled in a Federation star chart that was in Fleet Admiral Kirsten Clancy's office at Starfleet Headquarters. (PIC: "Maps and Legends")

Physical characteristics

The system consisted of its primary Sol, nine planets and their moons, as well as several smaller planetary bodies and minor planets.

An asteroid belt separated the system into an inner system and 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)

Known system locations
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.
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 (Sol III)

Approximately four billion years ago, an ancient species of humanoids injected genetic material into the primordial soup on Earth. Five hundred million years later, life began on the planet. Besides Earth-based life, Martian fossils indicated that life also once evolved on other planets of the Sol system. (TNG: "The Last Outpost", "Datalore", "The Chase", "All Good Things...")

Approximately sixty-five million years ago, a comet collided with the planet Earth. With this mass extinction event ending the dinosaurian era, mammals rose to prominence. One of those mammalian species, Humans, forged a civilization on their home planet. By 2373 a small number of Voth scientists believed that their species originally evolved from hadrosaurs on Earth, before leaving the Sol system towards 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 that 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 total destruction of Earth. By the late 24th century, there were Humans living on Venus, Luna, Mars, and on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Terraforming efforts were under way 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")

In addition to planetary settlements, 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. (VOY: "Relativity", "Life Line"; DIS: "The War Without, The War Within")

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")

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 commercial and exploration routes after the use of warp drive began. Sol was a stop on the Alpha Centauri-Epsilon Eridani commercial route.

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

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 has eight planets in the system's description. Both Pluto and the unnamed Starbase 1 planet are represented in-game alongside the other planets, indicating that the two are considered dwarf planets in the 23rd and 25th centuries.

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

External links

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