What's in the Galactic Core?

[Beard_vs_Geek]

Hello Everyone,
After watching Star Trek V, The Final Frontier again after... well.... 15 years. I got super interested in the Galactic Core and Barrier. So I did a bunch of research and put together a video about what's in the Galactic Core.

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What I want to ask all of you is, If we know the Great Barrier is just an illusion and crews have traveled to the Galactic Core and back safely. Why didn't The Federation explore the Galactic Core more fully? Obviously it has habitable planets and systems with intelligent species. Just as long as you don't get to close to the exact center you should be ok right?
Anyway, love to know what you all think.

 

[The Wormhole]

Why didn't The Federation explore the Galactic Core more fully?

Because, Trek V aside, it's too damn far from the Federation.

 

[Beard_vs_Geek]

Because, Trek V aside, it's too damn far from the Federation.

Is it though? We do know they have sent probes before, it's just none have come back. Plus the Enterprise D went there twice, one in a movie and once in the animated series. The Federation has sent out deep space missions before to places just as far away.
See I'm hoping that some time in the future they will do a series set after TNG and VOY and DS9 and at that time we get to find out more about what else is in the Galactic Core.

 

[The Wormhole]

The actual distance from the Earth to the galactic core is known, and it is too far for the Federation of the 24th century.

the Enterprise D went there twice, one in a movie and once in the animated series.

What are you even talking about? The only movie to feature the Enterprise D was Generations, and that didn't involve the galactic core. And there've been no animated series based on TNG.

It is true the Enterprise D did go to the galactic core once, in the episode The Nth Degree. But that was with the assistance of an advanced alien race.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Going by TOS standards, it could easily be explored. They went to the centre and back twice ("Magicks of Megas Tu" being the other one, where they visited a magic universe), beyond the rim of the galaxy twice ("Where No Man..." and "By Any Other Name"). The new movies do things the same way.

But Next Gen-era Treks decided to (VERY inconsistently) emphasise the massiveness of the galaxy, and pretend those adventures never happened. Crossing the galaxy became a lifelong journey, making the core of the galaxy very hard to reach. Thus, they didn't go back outside of "The Nth Degree", where they had alien help to get there.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Here's my old "Speed of Plot" chart, emphasising how screwy Trek's time/speed/distance ratios are:

 

[C.E. Evans]

The closer you get to the Galactic Core, the hotter and more radioactive it is, IMO. A few thousand light-years from the center, stars and other stellar clusters are more closer together, probably creating a vast superheated & largely irradiated region that is probably similar to Hell with M-class planets being harder and harder to find (and those with humanoid life, likely even more so).

Go all the way in to the center, and there could be awaiting the most destructive force in our Galaxy--a supermassive black hole.

 

[Beard_vs_Geek]

The actual distance from the Earth to the galactic core is known, and it is too far for the Federation of the 24th century.

What are you even talking about? The only movie to feature the Enterprise D was Generations, and that didn't involve the galactic core. And there've been no animated series based on TNG.

It is true the Enterprise D did go to the galactic core once, in the episode The Nth Degree. But that was with the assistance of an advanced alien race.

oh my bad wrong letter. Enterprise A. haha in Episode 5 the final frontier and in the Animated Series Season 1 episode entitled The Magicks of Megus-Tu.

 

[Beard_vs_Geek]

Here's my old "Speed of Plot" chart, emphasising how screwy Trek's time/speed/distance ratios are:

This is kind of cool to see this. Thanks, to it totally depends on the series and who's writing it at the time.

 

[Beard_vs_Geek]

The closer you get to the Galactic Core, the hotter and more radioactive it is, IMO. A few thousand light-years from the center, stars and other stellar clusters are more closer together, probably creating a vast superheated & largely irradiated region that is probably similar to Hell with M-class planets being harder and harder to find (and those with humanoid life, likely even more so).

Go all the way in to the center, and there could be awaiting the most destructive force in our Galaxy--a supermassive black hole.

Oh totally, but if you stick to the outer edges it should be fine. Plus in the Nth Degree in TNG. The Enterprise stays orbiting the Cytherian planet for ten days before leaving and they had no ill affects.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Galactic seeds for the next galactic apple.

 

[Tenacity]

iirc, voyager plotted a course home that curved away from the core region of the galaxy, instead of direct course through the region.

by "center of the galaxy" i don't think they meant the exact center point, but instead the entire general inner area of the galaxy. basically everything more than a couple of thousand light years inward of us.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Doesn't the galactic core have a barrier around it, like the galactic edge does?

Oh and I totally buy the idea that "The One" (from Star Trek V) was a renegade Cytherian imprisoned within the center of the galaxy.

 

[Beard_vs_Geek]

Yes there is a barrier around the Galactic Core called the Galactic Barrier. I would recommend actually watching the video to get some good base information on the Galactic Core. A lot of answers to people's questions are frond in it. Just FYI

 

[Timo]

Of course, neither ST5:TFF nor "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" need involve any travel to the Galactic Core. They just involve travel to the Galactic Core. There's a definite lack of actually getting there involved in both cases.

In the TAS episode, our heroes set out to study the core. They wouldn't achieve this by going into it, though: what they really want is an outside view of this place where "matter is being created", or they'd be toast themselves. They'd get their view by going just a teensy weensy way, past some obstacle that blocks their line of sight, and then ogling.

In the movie, the crazy man tells they have to go to the GC. Kirk says it can't be done because the Great Barrier blocks the way. He doesn't tell where the Great Barrier lies, though. Apparently, it lies just a few hours' (days'?) travel from Nimbus III. And the closer, the merrier, really - because then it becomes impractical to try and get around it, whereas a voyage starting from some other point (say, the TAS one) might be better disposed to involve a roundabout course. If the Barrier is far away, then starting points won't matter, and we don't want that!

We could view the Great Barrier as the Trek equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef. One hell of an obstacle for those trying to access Australia by sail, but only if they approach from a certain direction (that is, from the direction of home). And one hell of a place to visit, with all sorts of amazing stuff in there - some of which is falsely attributed to regions behind the Barrier in Trek.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Beard_vs_Geek]

Of course, neither ST5:TFF nor "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" need involve any travel to the Galactic Core. They just involve travel to the Galactic Core. There's a definite lack of actually getting there involved in both cases.

In the TAS episode, our heroes set out to study the core. They wouldn't achieve this by going into it, though: what they really want is an outside view of this place where "matter is being created", or they'd be toast themselves. They'd get their view by going just a teensy weensy way, past some obstacle that blocks their line of sight, and then ogling.

In the movie, the crazy man tells they have to go to the GC. Kirk says it can't be done because the Great Barrier blocks the way. He doesn't tell where the Great Barrier lies, though. Apparently, it lies just a few hours' (days'?) travel from Nimbus III. And the closer, the merrier, really - because then it becomes impractical to try and get around it, whereas a voyage starting from some other point (say, the TAS one) might be better disposed to involve a roundabout course. If the Barrier is far away, then starting points won't matter, and we don't want that!

We could view the Great Barrier as the Trek equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef. One hell of an obstacle for those trying to access Australia by sail, but only if they approach from a certain direction (that is, from the direction of home). And one hell of a place to visit, with all sorts of amazing stuff in there - some of which is falsely attributed to regions behind the Barrier in Trek.

Timo Saloniemi

You have some good insights into this and I love the analogy of the Great Barrier Reef. What do you guys think about a season of a future Star Trek show exploring the Galactic Core? Would that be enough to sustain a season of a show?

 

[FormerLurker]

Yes there is a barrier around the Galactic Core called the Galactic Barrier. I would recommend actually watching the video to get some good base information on the Galactic Core. A lot of answers to people's questions are frond in it. Just FYI

You're just palming stuff off on us.

Of course, neither ST5:TFF nor "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" need involve any travel to the Galactic Core. They just involve travel to the Galactic Core. There's a definite lack of actually getting there involved in both cases.

In the TAS episode, our heroes set out to study the core. They wouldn't achieve this by going into it, though: what they really want is an outside view of this place where "matter is being created", or they'd be toast themselves. They'd get their view by going just a teensy weensy way, past some obstacle that blocks their line of sight, and then ogling.

In the movie, the crazy man tells they have to go to the GC. Kirk says it can't be done because the Great Barrier blocks the way. He doesn't tell where the Great Barrier lies, though. Apparently, it lies just a few hours' (days'?) travel from Nimbus III. And the closer, the merrier, really - because then it becomes impractical to try and get around it, whereas a voyage starting from some other point (say, the TAS one) might be better disposed to involve a roundabout course. If the Barrier is far away, then starting points won't matter, and we don't want that!

We could view the Great Barrier as the Trek equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef. One hell of an obstacle for those trying to access Australia by sail, but only if they approach from a certain direction (that is, from the direction of home). And one hell of a place to visit, with all sorts of amazing stuff in there - some of which is falsely attributed to regions behind the Barrier in Trek.

Timo Saloniemi

This. A thousand times this.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Sulu actually calls out, "Galaxy center, Captain!" in "Magicks". The intent is clear in both this and STV, that they were at the galaxy's center. Anything else is fan headcanon.

 

[KelisThePoet]

The Kronos travel time discrepancy between "Broken Bow" and Into Darkness seems the least problematic to me, since it's both the smallest discrepancy and involves the greatest difference in ship speeds--warp 5 vs. warp 8 (?), according to your chart--and while I'm sure someone can correct me about what I'm overlooking, I would have assumed that the Kelvinverse Enterprise would be booking it to Kronos at warp 9 or close.

How long does it take the Enterprise A to go from Earth to the Klingon Empire in The Undiscovered Country?

 

[The Old Mixer]

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Galactic seeds for the next galactic apple.

Or the Tootsie Roll center of the galaxy.