Poll Is the Earth on the border of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants? (Yes/No)

[Parallaxis]

• Newer Maps seem to say Yes.
• Oscreen dialog seems to suggest No.

New maps always want to put Earth on the Alpha and Beta Quadrant border. But nothing in the onscreen dialog (the king of canon) bears this out. Most onscreen dialog seems to suggest that Earth is in the middle of the Alpha Quadrant.

And map people, if Sol is directly on the border, does that mean that Earth rotates into the Beta Quadrant 50% of the time?

 

[The Wormhole]

Yes

 

[Parallaxis]

Yes

Why?

 

[The Wormhole]

Because I like it

 

[Parallaxis]

Because I like it

You're fine with Earth being in the Beta Quadrant 50% of the time?

 

[Richard S. Ta]

There should be a ‘who cares?’ option.

 

[Markonian]

I think it’s awesome because it means that all of us, in real life, have been in two of the galaxy’s four quadrants!

The reason the writers came up with Sol on the border is to explain how the Enterprise, at Earth, was often the only ship in the quadrant.

 

[Guy Gardener]

How thin is the border?

Earth is revolving around the sun, the sun is revolving around the galactic core, and the galaxy is spinning, while it metriculates with the nearby Galaxies in our local group.

So how fast does the xy axis to the Galaxy spin in relation to what?

 

[F. King Daniel]

It's wherever the plot of the current episode requires it to be

 

[Timofnine]

In my mind, yes, Earth is split right down the middle between the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. This is how I have *always* seen it on maps. This almost perfect placement of the planet, however, does seem a little bit *too* much of a coincidence, perhaps even ‘engineered’ in some way by those who created the map, but I guess that it is similar to old Earth maps having America or the UK in the middle. Other species may not even recognise the four quadrants, though allies may have adapted the Federation standard star charts during exchanges of astrometrics and stellar cartography data.

Does anybody know if the *real* galaxy has been split up in to four quadrants by NASA? I believe that it should be.

 

[Markonian]

In the Second Splinter Timeline, Voyager encountered the Confederacy of the First Quadrant who call the Delta the…First Quadrant. I don’t remember another species not using the classical four quadrants system.
It is not used in Star Fleet Battles, that old offshoot game.

IIRC, NASA divides the galaxy along the galactic arms.

 

[Citiprime]

It speaks to how human-centric the show is and the Federation is within the show. I mean we are “sector 001” by the Federation’s designation.

Although, you would think that if Earth/Sol was on the border, it would be a pretty strategic position that the Vulcans, Romulans, Andorians, Klingons, etc., would have been fighting over way before humanity ever discovered warp drive.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

IIRC, NASA divides the galaxy along the galactic arms.

Spoiler: Our Human-Centric 2D Map of the Thin Disk section of the MIlky Way Galaxy

It speaks to how human-centric the show is and the Federation is within the show. I mean we are “sector 001” by the Federation’s designation.

#HumanityFirst

 

[Oddish]

The map I saw makes it pretty clear that the Federation straddles the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, but it wasn't detailed enough for Earth to be visible.

 

[Guy Gardener]

But humanity inherited it's maps from the Vulcans four entire days travel from Earth at Warp 4.

Earth may be Sector 001, but Vulcan is Sector 000.

 

[1001001]

There should be a ‘who cares?’ option.

There should be for all polls.

 

[at Quark's]

Does anybody know if the *real* galaxy has been split up in to four quadrants by NASA? I believe that it should be.

Apparently it is, just not by NASA (I don't think there'd be any need for them to do so either, as long as we can't even really leave our own system) and not in the same way as in Star Trek.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galac...quadrant, or quadrant,of the Milky Way Galaxy.

 

[Timofnine]

Maybe there are special ‘marker planets’ on each of the galaxies axis, with Earth being one of them along its -y axis? There may be another similar planet/solar system on the y axis between the Gamma and Delta Quadrants. Also, rather than the earths orbit causing our planet to weave in and out of both quadrants, maybe the line really does literally go through the middle of earth because of galactic paradigm* shifts, with earth being used as a fixed point?

There may be gravitational distortions, subspace anomalies and other phenomena in the galaxy which allow for some fluidity and unpredictability in large linear lines drawn across such vast distances. The solution is to lock such lines to celestial bodies which are roughly polar opposite to each other on these axis. This would mean that the y axis would shift a very small amount along the x axis, likewise the x axis would shift along the y as the planets linked to the line orbit their respective suns. The measurement of the distances involved in earths orbit around Sol may be sufficient to allow for the y axis variables when locked in against another planet on the other side of the galaxy. The axis could also be some form of energetic ‘lay line’. The axis may even seemingly ‘wobble’ a bit. This all may be why the Borg find it so important to assimilate Earth, and why Earth became so important to the Vulcans and the eventual Federation.

This galactic measurement system could have originally been designed (or discovered) by the Progenitors after the great Galactic flood which destroyed the Star Wars Universe.

*I do not know if I can use the word ‘paradigm’ in this sentence, but I thought that it sounded cool.

 

[Timofnine]

Also, this system would allow for the other distance variable of galactic expansion, so the other planet along the axis linked to Earth would need to be traveling outwards in the opposite direction at an inverse angle.

*EDIT*
Coincidentally, maybe also taking in to account the Parallax effect? I probably should have used that word ‘parallax’ @Parallaxis instead of paradigm, hehe.

 

[Forbin]

I think it's actually that The Sun in on the borderline. It moves around much less than the Earth does.