Asteroid

A small, rocky object, much smaller than a planet, and irregularly shaped. They appear in belts around a star, although some can wander outside the belt if affected by the gravitational pull of planets around it. Larger asteroids are sometimes called planetoids. Known Asteroids: Asteroid Belt: The asteroid belt in the Sol System, located between Mars and Jupiter. Students at Starfleet Academy undergo training there. Asteroid gamma 601: A moon-sized asteroid located in the Devolin System. The USS Pegasus was encased within it, a result of a failed phasing cloak experiment. Giles Belt: An Asteroid Belt.

Badlands

The Badlands is a stretch along the Cardassian border that ships try to avoid. There are a lot of plasma storms in the area, and can destroy ships. There is an M-class asteroid in the badlands.

Black Cluster

An astrological formation created 9 billion years ago when hundreds of proto-stars collapsed in close proximity to each other. The resulting formation is fraught with violent unpredictable gravitational wavefronts. The phenomena, which can absorb energy, is extremely dangerous to spacecraft systems.

Black Hole

A celestial phenomenon caused by the collapse of a neutron star. The gravity generated becomes so great that even light cannot escape. Extremely small black holes are known as quantum singularities.

Co-orbital satellites

A pair of objects (such as planetoids) whose orbits are very close to each other. Under certain circumstances, a near collision between the two bodies can result in each object assuming the orbit previously occupied by the other. In other words, the two objects trade orbits.

Cosmic string fragment

A nearly infinitely thin filament of almost infinitely dense matter. Although a string fragment can have the gravitational pull of one hundred stars, it is no wider than a proton. Cosmic strings emanate a characteristic set of subspace frequencies that are caused by the decay of atomic particles along the string’s event horizon. In 2367, the USS Enterprise-D used these frequencies to help guide a school of two-dimensional creatures back to their home in a cosmic string fragment.

Dark matter proto-comet

This phenomenon is only theoretical. It is suspected that it is attracted to any source of antimatter and neutralizes it upon contact.

Dark-matter Nebula

An interstellar gas cloud that emits little or no light or other energy. In the mid 22nd century, the Vulcans conducted experiments where they were able to excite small quantities of dark matter by bombarding it with metrion particles. The Enterprise NX-01 later succeeded in exciting a nebula with torpedoes modified to emit metrion particles.

Emission nebula

An interstellar gas cloud that is a source of electromagnetic radiation. Emission nebulas can prevent cloaking devices from functioning.

Energy vortex

An unexplained time-space disturbance that occurred near the Endicor system. It was responsible for destroying an alternate version of the USS Enterprise-D in 2365, and sending an alternate version of Captain Picard 6 hours back in time. The crew was able to avoid destruction of the ship by piloting it directly into the center of the vortex.

Hypergiant

A star that is on the verge of a supernova. This final stage can take hundreds of years.

Ion Storms

Storms of Ions in varying intensity. Can cause damage to shuttles and the more powerful ones can damage starships.

Kuiper Belt

Belt of comet fragments that orbits stars at a great distance.

Nebula

Interstellar gas clouds that are the birthplace of stars.

Known Nebulae:

Alawanir nebula: This nebula was investigated by the USS Enterprise-D in 2369. Azure Nebula: Nebula located near the border of the Klingon Empire and the Federation. It is a type 11 nebula, cobalt blue in color, and it contained sirillium gas.

Borgolis Nebula: A blue colored nebula studied by the USS Enterprise-D in 2369. Chamra Vortex: a nebula in the Rakhari sector of the Gamma Quadrant. There are millions of asteroids in it. The ionized gases screen ships from sensors. The vortex is riddled with volatile pockets of a gas the Rakhari call toh-maire. If they are destabilized, they can ignite, and blow a shuttle apart.

Gamma Erandi Nebula: An interstellar gas cloud, which produces a great deal of subspace interference, blocking communication.

Lantar Nebula: Q invited Vash here to see the Sampalo relic on Hoek IV.

Neutronic Wavefront

A phenomena that travels at high warp and spans more than half a dozen light years. It is saturated with radiolytic isotopes, exposure to which kills humans within 3 minutes. The contain plasma eddies, which can rip a ship apart. They can be class-3, class-5, etc, depending on their intensity. Environmental suits can protect crewmembers in ships without energy shielding for up to 22 minutes. It can take days or weeks to pass through a wavefront.

Plasma Disruption

In 2370, Deep Space Nine was temporarily evacuated due to a plasma disruption. They were forced to maintain only a skeleton crew. The plasma discharges can cause crystallization on space stations. Plasma storms are extremely rare.

Polaric Field

Neucleonic particles build up on the hull of ships in a polaric field. They are composed of mostly ferric ions, so unidentifiable elements, and the material that accumulates on the hull is magnetic. The substance also creates a diamagnetic field, which can disrupt ship systems if large enough.

Proto-nebula

A newly forming interstellar cloud of dust and gas. It can give off plasma surges with intense internal gravimetric shear forces.

Quantum singularity

The event horizon is the gravitational boundary surrounding a quantum singularity, from which no light or space-normal object can escape.

Solar Plasma Ejection

This phenomena can be triggered when an EM pulse is fired at a magnetic instability on a sun. The resulting ejection is large enough to incinerate everything within the 100 million km.

Spatial Flexure

A tunnel through space made with deflector array. It interferes with the tractor beam.

Subspace Rupture

A subspace rupture was reported in the Hanoli system in the mid 23rd century. The phenomena draws in matter from the surrounding space. A Vulcan science mission to the Hanoli system detonated a pulse wave torpedo at the coordinates of the tear. Five minutes after they did, the rupture expanded radically. The Vulcan ship was wiped out along with the entire system. It reached a critical mass point and imploded and then disappeared from normal space altogether.

In 2369, a similar rupture appeared in the Bajoran system, but it turned out to be the product of Jadzia Dax's imagination, enhanced by aliens that were exploring the region.

Wormhole

A subspace tunnel between two points in time and space. Most are very unstable, and their endpoints fluctuate wildly.

Known wormholes:

Bajoran wormhole: The Bajoran Wormhole is the first stable wormhole (neither end shifts locations) known to exist. It was artificially created by beings known as the Prophets. Bajorans believe that ships are safely guided through the wormhole by the hands of the Prophets. It is located in the Denorios Belt in the Bajoran system, and its end point is in the Gamma Quadrant. The closest star system to the Gamma terminus of the wormhole is five light years away. The system is called Idran. Idran has no M-Class planets, a ternary system consisting of twin O-type companions. It was identified using data from an analysis conducted in the 22nd century by the Quadros-1 probe of the Gamma Quadrant. It is 70,000 light years from Bajor. The Bajoran wormhole has none of the resonance waves usually found in wormholes. The wormhole is 160 million km from Bajor. It is formed by verteron particles that allow a vessel to pass through on impulse power. A trail of silithium left by a comet that broke up near the wormhole, allowed subspace communication through the wormhole.

Barzan wormhole: This wormhole was initially believed to be stable, with its terminus in the Gamma Quadrant. A later investigation proved that the wormhole's terminus was erratic, and a Ferengi shuttle that attempted to travel through it was lost in the Delta Quadrant. When the Ferengi shuttle returned home 7 years later, they emitted a graviton pulse that made the wormhole erratic on both ends.