Talk: Singularity

Copyvio

The following was removed:

History

Just after the infamous Tomed Incident in 2311 that led to the Romulan's self-induced period of isolationism that lasted until the 2360's, Starfleet Intelligence reports indicated that, though Romulan engineers were trying to perfect the existing matter-antimatter reactor technology for their cruisers, cargo vessels and scouts, one heavily-guarded construction yard deep within Romulan space was devoting considerable resources to a propulsion system that would revolutionize Romulan space flight and secure the Romulan Star Empire's place as a dominant power in the Alpha Quadrant.

The development of this new power source was punctuated by occasional skirmishes along the Romulan Neutral Zone, as well as unexplained detonations within two light-years of the Romulan yard. Starfleet sensors detected massive gamma-ray bursts mixed with proportions of vaporized metals and composites, but analysts could not agree if they were watching weapons tests or accidents. It turned out to be neither. When the detonations ceased, only the Romulans knew that they had finally created and contained a micro-singularity - a black hole.

Technical Data

Suspended within a 2.87 meter reaction chamber, the singularity could produce energy from literally any matter dropped into it. It possesed the equivalent of 275,000 metric tonnes of mass, contained within a 0.8 cm diameter. The most common fuel remained cryogenic deuterium, known for its ease of handling; helium-3 and carbon-60 also produced usable energy for warp speeds. The singularity was kept rotating at nearly 29,000 RPM, with three primary fuel streams fired tangentially to its 'equator.' Energy, in the form of high-density plasma, ejected from the poles of the singularity, created by the acceleration and compression of the fuel to near infinite density. This plasma flared into the two dilithium chambers, one on top of the reactor and one on the bottom. The upper dilithium chamber fed plasma to the warp coils, and the lower chamber to the ship's power grid.

Service

The reaction chamber was integrated into the massive new Warbird D'deridex, a 1,041 meter long vessel that dwarfed Starfleet's Galaxy-class and marked the end of the Romulan isolation. The D'deridex-type Warbird remains in service today, having served the Empire admirably for its 17 years of active service. The quantum sigularity reactor has also been included in the design of the new Valdore-type Warbird. The Valdore-type Warbird is smaller and less massive than its older sibling the D'deridex, but is much more maneuverable.

Reports that three armored singularity cores were recovered by the Romulans from the Reman Warbird Scimitar are still being investigated by Starfleet Intelligence.

Reference

Text adapted and image scanned from Starfleet Technical Database: Romulan Propulsion Historical Overview (February 2003, Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 10)

Discussion

not sure this is allowable under canon policy. --Captain Mike K. Bartel

Leave it here, like this. -- Redge | Talk 16:49, 23 Aug 2004 (CEST)

IMO, ST: The Magazine is quite canon. At least enough for this article to be included. Ottens 16:51, 23 Aug 2004 (CEST)

Actually, Star Trek: The Magazine is quite on the borderline of what is considered an "official" resource, and is quite non-canon. We haven't even been according the more relevant articles by Sternbach with official or canon status (like USS Hauck and USS Gih'lan, recently deleted).. so i wonder how this non-canon history of the Tomed Incident era, which hasn't been seen in any canon form, could be considered official or canonical. -- Captain Mike K. Bartel 16:56, 23 Aug 2004 (CEST)

I agree with Mike. The magazine is clearly not canon, and I think it was correct to move this content here for discussion. Some content might be re-included as background notes, but in my opinion we should at least leave out the more specific details and the image... -- Cid Highwind 17:00, 23 Aug 2004 (CEST)

As I said, just copy back what is allowed, and leave the rest here. Layout etc.. are just fine, so if anyone will want to read this, they can check here. -- Redge | Talk 17:50, 23 Aug 2004 (CEST)

Article move

I moved this article back from Quantum singularity to Singularity. Some articles link to the second one directly, even this article has links to a microsingularity (no "quantum"). Seems easier for searching purposes and avoids the problem of having a redirect where otherwise might be place for "Singularity". -- Cid Highwind 20:03, 21 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Usage changes

I modified the article to account for the difference in usage in Star Trek (and real life too) between a "black hole" and a "singularity". Aholland 21:23, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I also removed the following for personal commentary and conclusions:

'Star Trek writers are quite fond of black holes. They write about them constantly, but they are often described or used inaccurately.

Lawrence Krauss has identified possibly the most objectionable abuse of black holes in a story, which occurred in a Voyager episode in which the crew found a "quantum fissure" (crack) in the event horizon of a black hole, through which they escaped. He was quite amused by this blunder, and described it several times in "The Physics of Star Trek". Without parroting him, I will only say that it is impossible for an event horizon to have a crack.

Another serious error is that black holes are assumed to magically "suck in" everything around them. When the crew of the USS Voyager first encountered the Hirogen, they deactivated the "containment field" around a quantum singularity and it immediately "sucked in" every starship in the vicinity, except for the Voyager itself which barely escaped. However, a black hole's gravity field does not possess any unusual properties once you get outside of its event horizon. The strength of the gravity field is determined by the mass of the black hole, and an object can potentially orbit the black hole just as it would any other object. Only a fairly large star will collapse into a black hole, but once a black hole is formed, it will remain a black hole even if it gets quite small. A small black hole (such as the one in the Voyager episode) can potentially have much lower mass than a planet, and correspondingly low gravity. It is even possible that small, primordial black holes exist within our solar system right now, beyond our ability to detect them.

Hirogen Communications Relays

Are we SURE that the singularities are artificial, i distintly remeber janeway saying that it was fascinating that some one was HARVESTING micro singularities so long ago. The term harvesting seems more like they were finding and using naturaly occuring micro black holes.--KetracelWhiteJunkie 03:34, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

Redundant Text

I removed:

"by creating and utilizing an artificial quantum singularity" from the intro, which originally read: "The artificial quantum singularity (also referred to as a confined or forced quantum singularity) is a method of generating energy by creating and utilizing an artificial quantum singularity."

This was a circular and redundant sentence that sounded a bit too juvenile for an encyclopedia. – The preceding unsigned comment was added by Icesyckel (talk • contribs).

Image

I don't believe the current image is accurate. File:ArtificialQuantumSingularity.jpg When they open the outer casing, and data scans the inside he calls what they see a "highly focused aperture in the space-time continuum". Previously Geordi had also mentioned that "the engine core is completely inactive" according to the engine readout console. Also, as he opens the casing and before Data scans the inside Geordi remarks that he "thinks [they have] found the problem." They were expecting to find a dead core, however what they found was not an active quantum singularity. What we are seeing is the effect of the temporal aperture, with "dark spots" representing trapped alien embryos from the alternate time continuum and this image does not in fact represent a artificial quantum singularity.

However since the aliens were searching for a gravity well, it wouldn't make sense for them to have remained if the core had been shut down, and if it had been shut down how would they have remained trapped? Could just be a hole in the writing. – The preceding unsigned comment was added by 153.90.76.30.

The image isn't necessary inaccurate, it is the core, just the title describing what we are seeing is slightly off. If everything was up to par, that would be where the AQS would be, but rather, it is an alien nest in an AQS in a nonfunctional core. -Alan del Beccio 08:09, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Merge?

I gotta ask, is there really a point to having separate articles for the different types of singularities (type-4, artificial, etc...)? It seems to me that we could just have this article, and a section that says "types of singularities," or something similar, and just merge them into this article. It would make things much more concise and easy to search for (we could make the others redirects). Thoughts? -Angry Future Romulan 15:38, September 16, 2010 (UTC)

I would agree with a merge. --Pseudohuman 15:50, September 16, 2010 (UTC)

It seems as if at least this article and Black hole have enough content to stay separate. On the other hand, it's pretty strange that a separate article for Type-4 quantum singularity exists, while Quantum singularity redirects to here. So, some clean-up is definitely necessary, but I'd not support a complete merge of all articles - at least not before seeing some "temp articles" created to show how the result would look like. -- Cid Highwind 16:11, September 16, 2010 (UTC)

I agree, merge. Merge all "singularity" articles into "Singularity" (but leave "black hole" separate of course). Just fix the redirects. – Distantlycharmed 17:33, September 16, 2010 (UTC)

Hmmm...not exactly sure how to create a "temp article." -Angry Future Romulan 20:43, September 16, 2010 (UTC)

Just click this link and create one: Singularity/temp. Temp articles are just subpages of the main article that can be moved over/merged with the main article if it's approved. - Archduk3 21:04, September 16, 2010 (UTC)

Done. It can probably use some formatting corrections, but I think it presents a good idea of what it would look like. Let me know what you think. -Angry Future Romulan 21:20, September 16, 2010 (UTC)

Hmmm...nobody's responded in a while...I was hoping to get some feedback on the temp page I created, and go, no-go on the merge. Anybody...Bueller? -Angry Future Romulan 21:29, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

Well, I'm gonna give it a couple more days, and if nobody raises any objections, I'm gonna be bold and go for it. Rest assured, I will clean up the temp page so that it reflects recent changes to the relevant articles, take out duplicate links, etc... -Angry Future Romulan 21:29, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

Looks good to me, go for it. --Pseudohuman 21:38, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

Can't Memory Alpha now, Halo. Oh, go for it. - Archduk3 21:40, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

When the article is ready to move/merge, let me know, and I'll do the magic -- sulfur 22:48, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

Whelp, I think I'm done. Feel free to do your magic. -Angry Future Romulan 15:34, September 23, 2010 (UTC)

Screw it, I did it myself. Could somebody delete the temp page? -Angry Future Romulan 16:17, September 24, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Now I have to go and redo it all to properly merge things. -- sulfur 16:53, September 24, 2010 (UTC)

And now it's all properly merged, histories included. -- sulfur 17:04, September 24, 2010 (UTC)

Good thing we have admins to fix the mistakes of idiots like me. -Angry Future Romulan 21:26, September 24, 2010 (UTC)