What's Left?

[Takeru]

They don't mention a percentage in "Encounter at Farpoint" or "All Good Things". They do mention a percentage in "The Dauphin", a second season episode. Wesley has a crush on a teenage girl who's soon to be ruler of a world, then takes her out to the holodeck, and tells her the Federation has only explored 19% of the galaxy.

19% of the galaxy is ridiculously large and it's completely unrealistic that is has been explored by the federation. Mapped by telescopes and drones maybe but not explored, just for reference 19% of the galaxy would be 19 BILLION stars by the most conservative estimates of the number of stars in our galaxy and it's likely to be way more.

The federation was around 200 years old at that point but lets be generous and give them 350 years of exploration by including what the members did before joining the federation. If they had visited 100 new stars systems per day that would put them at 12.8 million stars or 0.0128% of the galaxy and that's just visiting once with no exploration of the star system itself or any stuff in between the stars like giant space amoeba, various nebulas, relics from ancient civilizations etc.

Let's go nuts and assume the federation managed to visit 10.000 stars per day for 350 years, that's a completely unrealistic number but if they managed to do it that still would only give them 1.28% of the galaxy explored and like I said above those number are only true if we assume 100 billion stars in the galaxy, it could be up to 400 billion.

So to answer what's left to explore, pretty much everything, the federation has barely scratched the surface of the galaxy.

 

[F. King Daniel]

If the galaxy is 100,000 light years across, at warp speed, how long does it take to go from one end to the other?

If you're watching Voyager, 100 years. If you're watching TOS, about a month.

 

[rahullak]

Trek was too conservative in its space travel speeds. 'Shroom drive notwithstanding.

 

[Lord Garth]

19% of the galaxy is ridiculously large and it's completely unrealistic that is has been explored by the federation. Mapped by telescopes and drones maybe but not explored, just for reference 19% of the galaxy would be 19 BILLION stars by the most conservative estimates of the number of stars in our galaxy and it's likely to be way more.

The federation was around 200 years old at that point but lets be generous and give them 350 years of exploration by including what the members did before joining the federation. If they had visited 100 new stars systems per day that would put them at 12.8 million stars or 0.0128% of the galaxy and that's just visiting once with no exploration of the star system itself or any stuff in between the stars like giant space amoeba, various nebulas, relics from ancient civilizations etc.

Let's go nuts and assume the federation managed to visit 10.000 stars per day for 350 years, that's a completely unrealistic number but if they managed to do it that still would only give them 1.28% of the galaxy explored and like I said above those number are only true if we assume 100 billion stars in the galaxy, it could be up to 400 billion.

So to answer what's left to explore, pretty much everything, the federation has barely scratched the surface of the galaxy.

Using TNG+ Terms, it took Starfleet ships of the 2370s a year to travel 1,000 light years. And the Milky Way is about 100,000 light years wide. Assuming you're traveling two-dimensionally. The actual circumference is more like 300,000 light years. So it would take 300 years for a starship with 2370s-level technology to explore everywhere, assuming it never stopped. And if you don't stop, you're not really exploring. So it would take much longer than 300 years and no starship that we've seen in Star Trek thus far has been in service for 300 years.

Even if Starfleet manages to become capable of intergalactic travel instead of just interstellar travel, it's entirely possible that exploration of the galaxy in Star Trek could be a thing that lasts into the 4th Millennium.

 

[Takeru]

Using TNG+ Terms, it took Starfleet ships of the 2370s a year to travel 1,000 light years. And the Milky Way is about 100,000 light years wide. Assuming you're traveling two-dimensionally. The actual circumference is more like 300,000 light years. So it would take 300 years for a starship with 2370s-level technology to explore everywhere, assuming it never stopped.

It would take 300 years to fly around the galaxy in a circle once, that's not having explored everywhere, that's just traveling 300,000 light years without stopping and it doesn't matter if you do it in a straight line or in a circle, you're not exploring a lot that way.

It's also not the speed that's stopping the federation from exploring faster, they could have super warp drives traveling 1000 lightyears in a minute but that would just allow them to explore stars system further away but not more star systems because what's really limiting them is the number of ships and officers.

 

[publiusr]

I have this theory that it is good that Trek never stumbled into anything like a hyperdrive from Star Wars--let along from the Tier two hyperdrive from Stargate Destiny.

In Star Wars, humans seemed to have outflanked everyone, and populated a good bit of that Galaxy--but stagnated.

In trek, they keep bumping into things as warp speeds increase--and it keeps tech fresh.

 

[at Quark's]

It would take 300 years to fly around the galaxy in a circle once, that's not having explored everywhere, that's just traveling 300,000 light years without stopping and it doesn't matter if you do it in a straight line or in a circle, you're not exploring a lot that way.

It's also not the speed that's stopping the federation from exploring faster, they could have super warp drives traveling 1000 lightyears in a minute but that would just allow them to explore stars system further away but not more star systems because what's really limiting them is the number of ships and officers.

^This. Compare it to today's situation.

With modern standard transportation, pretty much any location on earth can be reached within 24/48 hours, (and significantly faster if it's really necessary). But if any specific person wanted to "explore the entire world" (whatever that means, let's say visit every settlement with 10 or more inhabitants), it would still take him decades even though he could get to any specific village relatively quickly. Now perhaps Starfleet has thousands of ships- but with 100 billion star systems to explore (or more) putting a significant dent in that should still take them centuries.

Of course, if a 20 lightyear cube that has only been swept with high-res sensors, also counts as "explored", that 19% figure gets a little more feasible.

 

[rahullak]

Maybe 19% is whatever they have on their charts as named/numbered systems. Along with the high-res sensor data.

 

[Timo]

Then again, this 19% coverage need not have been attained in 200 years. For all we know, it took fifty million years to reach, and simply 200 years to write down.

The Federation does not explore ruins exclusively - it visits people. Those people in turn visit people. Even if only a fraction agree to talk about their contacts, soon enough Starfleet could say "We know X who knows Y who knows Z who knows A who knows B who knows C who, put together, have been literally everywhere". And even ruins contain their share of buried knowledge: ancient myths help our heroes along in, say, "And the Children Shall Lead", and even the Borg rely on them in "Omega Directive".

This way, both the 11% figure from "Where No One" and the 19% figure from "The Dauphin" can be literally true the exact same way. The UFP just stumbled upon a lump of data in between. (Of course, 100% of the galaxy has been explored already, many times over, that much the heroes can absolutely rely on. But now 19% of it has been explored by people who agree to share.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Wormhole]

As of where we left off in the 24th century, the most heavily explored quadrant is the Alpha Quadrant, and even that only a very small fraction has been explored. There's plenty of the Milky Way left to check out.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

In a couple threads, I've addressed that question of "what's left," because scientifically we know that there would be a ton more of the galaxy to explore, but in-show, the galaxy feels a lot smaller. In the DS9 thread, people insisted that it was totally necessary to exploit an entire quadrant of the galaxy just to have a formidable opponent for the Federation and its allies. I disagreed.

In the Discovery thread, I cautioned against going the way of the Stargate franchise (galactic/intergalactic/multigalactic), but since then, DSC has gotten more disciplined with its travel mileage, thankfully. I still have that Stargate fear for Trek, though, and hopefully the writers will keep utilizing this big galaxy of ours to its fullest.

 

[Timo]

The best part of going far away is that you can forget about the people you met there. Helps a lot with storytelling, when the alternative is loads of complaints about how it's again all about the Klingons.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[at Quark's]

In a couple threads, I've addressed that question of "what's left," because scientifically we know that there would be a ton more of the galaxy to explore, but in-show, the galaxy feels a lot smaller. In the DS9 thread, people insisted that it was totally necessary to exploit an entire quadrant of the galaxy just to have a formidable opponent for the Federation and its allies. I disagreed.

Yes, in my eyes it is one of the (minor) weak points of Star Trek (and a lot of SF for that matter): failure to convey a sense of awe and wonder at how massively, insanely huge the galaxy is. Not a cardinal sin of course, telling good stories is way more important, but still. I think it could have been avoided with just a little more careful writing. But once you start to depict/indicate the Federation and it's (near-) equal competitors as "major AQ powers" instead of just powers that hold some territories in their own tiny corner of the AQ, there's no way but up. Soon the AQ will "feel" explored so you have to resort to other quadrants, and then, other galaxies.

 

[Prax]

TNG did this fine. Especially in the early seasons where they mention a few times that they've only charted 10% of the Galaxy or something like that(and actually explored significantly less). It's when you get to DS9 and Voyager that this is dumbed down and starts to make no sense.

"We're in the Delta Quadrant" -fine. I guess that works.

"We're trying to get back to the alpha quadrant"
"When we get back to the alpha quadrant..."
-Huhh? Why not just say "back to Earth," or "back to Federation space"?

"We are exploring the gamma quadrant on the other side of the wormhole"- fine. I guess that works
"The ENTIRE ALPHA QUADRANT is at stake!!"
"...and save THE ENTIRE ALPHA QUADRANT!"
or "Soon we will control the entire alpha quadrant"
-Huhh? This makes no sense. So when they say that phrase(and quite frequently in both shows), I have to assume they just mean the relatively tiny corner of the galaxy near the entrance to the wormhole where the Federation, Klingon Empire, et al are found.

As for the Gamma quadrant, the picture I get is that the Dominion is comparable to the Federation. They control a small piece of the "gamma quadrant" that does not extend all the way to the wormhole entrance. When the war started, they probably occupied that region/sector.

Of the species we know of, only the Borg have the ability to both expand numerically and travel fast enough to do anything approaching exploring a whole quarter of the Galaxy, and even they don't ruler over it all. It would be utterly impossible.

It apparently takes as much as ten years to cross their home territory, so they must still have a vast empire. Then they seem to have pockets of Borg in many other places, which makes sense because of how fast they can travel.

 

[unimatrix7]

^Heh, that always annoyed me too.

Paris: WE'RE ONLY A FEW PARSECS FROM THE ALPHA QUADRANT
Janeway: Not exactly how I wanted to cross the finish line.

 

[Prax]

Here's an alternative:

Paris: "We're 12 parsecs from the alpha quadrant"

Janeway: "Amazing. I'll be in my ready room. Let me know when we're close to home"

 

[Timo]

Umm, the border of the Alpha Quadrant is the finishing line, the way it's all set up. Earth sits on that border - exactly, in the 24th century Okudagrams, and within a sector, in the DSC ones.

It would be very difficult for our VOY heroes to hit a "distant" stretch of the Alpha/Beta border when coming from the direction of Delta and a fair distance from the galactic core. Why would they cross that line at anything else but Earth's exact location?

The DS9 complaints I get. But in VOY, getting to Earth is the exact equivalent of getting to Alpha Quadrant and vice versa. Barring wormholes that inconveniently take the heroes past Earth, that is.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Prax]

Oh, well then it's still dumb that they never mention that other quadrant?

Maybe it's dumbed down for a reason?

Paris: "Were already halfway through the beta quadrant"

Audience member: "honey, what's all this techno-mumbo jumbo supposed to mean?! It's all a buncha hooey"

 

[at Quark's]

^ The only sentence I know of that could be construed as them being in the Beta Quadrant is in "Renaissance Man", but in that very same episode there is another line that clearly indicates they are in the DQ. Hence they keep referring to their location as DQ till the very end and I'm therefore assuming that the Borg transwarp hub they jumped from was still in the DQ.

Interestingly, even their longer "original" voyage of Endgame, a reporter refers to as "23 years in the Delta Quadrant". So either they were never meant to travel any stretch in the BQ, or that reporter was just being sloppy

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The edge of the alpha quadrant covers half the span galaxy though. Depending on the route they take, they could cross it right at Earth, or they could cross it 30000ly away.

It is strange how they always talk in terms of quadrants. The alpha quadrant isn't even fully explored, much less controlled by Federation/Klingon/Romulan/Cardassian space.