The Small Magellanic Cloud or Nubecula Minor is a small satellite galaxy that orbited the Milky Way.
Specifics
The Romulans knew it as Enhaire.
The Neyel and the Neyel Hegemony were located within the galaxy. They knew their home as the Lesser M'jallan Cloud. Elaysians called it the Minor Outlier. (TTN novel: The Red King)
The Small Magellanic Cloud is located more than 165,000 light years from Federation space and is visible from Earth in the Tucana constellation. About 467 years away by starship, this galaxy is shaped roughly like a triangle rather than a spiral or sphere. The Large Magellanic Cloud could be seen from here. (TOS - Mudd's Angels short story: "The Business, As Usual, During Altercations")
This small galaxy could be seen from Earth's southern hemisphere. (ST reference: The Physics of Star Trek)
Subspace topology between Alpha and Beta Quadrants and the Small Magellanic Cloud was complex, with the Cloud being "downhill" interspacially. This allowed for disparate spacial disruptions in the galaxy to lead here. (TLE novel: The Buried Age, TTN novel: The Red King)
History
In 2058, early subspace field experiments by Earth's L-5 Colonies created a subspace rupture that tossed the colonies into deep space. The Vanguard colony arrived in the Small Magellanic Cloud, with its inhabitants eventually becoming the Neyel. (TLE novel: The Sundered, TTN novel: The Red King)
On reference stardate 1/24, a small extra-galactic probe from the Small Magellanic Cloud was found in Sector 24 traveling near warp 30. It was the Federation's first evidence of extra-galactic civilization, and was studied by science officer William Pomeroy of the USS Greyhound. (ST reference: Spaceflight Chronology)
In 2254, Starfleet library computer records of the Small Magellanic Cloud were scanned by Talosians as they examined the USS Enterprise. (TOS episodes: "The Cage", "The Menagerie")
In 2270, Harry Mudd fled from the USS Enterprise aboard the freighter Superstella, which was loaded with hundreds of metric tons of dilithium. Contact with the Galactic barrier threw both ships thousands of light-years forward into the Small Magellanic Cloud. The vessels arrived near a variable star with one planet. Unfortunately, the star resonated with the dilithium, forcing the crystals to expand uncontrollably, and they all had to be jettisoned. The dilithium was absorbed by the star, producing a chain reaction that blew up the star, then expanded to wipe out binary stars, trinary stars and eventually the entire galaxy. The blast formed a temporal disruption that hurled the Enterprise three months back in time. Subsequent events diverged from that timeline, leaving Leonard McCoy to wonder if the Small Magellanic Cloud might still be intact. (TOS - Mudd's Angels short story: "The Business, As Usual, During Altercations")
In 2298, Tuvok and Leonard James Akaar visited the Small Magellanic Cloud aboard the USS Excelsior via an interspatial fissure near the Tholian Assembly. (TLE novel: The Sundered, TTN novels: Taking Wing, The Red King)
In January 2380, a dimensional rift brought the USS Titan and IRW Valdore across 210,000 light years to the Small Magellanic Cloud. (TTN novels: Taking Wing, The Red King, Orion's Hounds, ST - Destiny novel: A Singular Destiny)
Governments
Species
Appendices
Appearances
- TOS episode: "The Cage"
- TOS episode: "The Menagerie"
- TLE novel: The Sundered
- TTN novel: Taking Wing
- TTN novel: The Red King
- TTN novel: Orion's Hounds
- TOS - Mudd's Angels short story: "The Business, As Usual, During Altercations"
References
- TLE novel: The Buried Age
- ST - Destiny novel: A Singular Destiny
- ST reference: Spaceflight Chronology
- ST reference: The Physics of Star Trek
Connections
- Small Magellanic Cloud article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Small Magellanic Cloud article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.