Wormhole

The Bajoran wormhole, located in the Bajor system.

A Federation artificial wormhole.

A wormhole is a conduit in space that connects two points of space-time together through subspace. A wormhole has a mouth at each end of the conduit that allows anything to travel through it. If a large enough, or stable enough wormhole is found then starships can pass through the wormhole and travel a great distance in relatively little time.

Overview

A wormhole-like phenomenon is created by a warp drive if the engines are not properly calibrated or balanced. These phenomena are highly unstable and dangerous. (TOS movie: Star Trek: The Motion Picture)

Studies showed that in order for the construction of an artificial wormhole to be possible, one would be required to construct a Verteron collider of at least eight kilometers in length. Another notable problem was not the size of the machinery involved but instead was the exotic construction material needed in order to create a permanent site. The mouth of an artificial wormhole with its outward radial pressure had tremendous tidal tension which was similar to the center of a massive neutron star. Thus, any building material would need to stand up to that kind of pressure for the wormhole to continue being stable. (DS9 novel: Behind Enemy Lines)

History

No natural stable wormholes have yet been discovered in the Alpha or Beta Quadrants.

A wormhole in Andorian space existed before collapsing in 2069; it left behind an ion-plasma energy field. During its existence, the wormhole prevented the Andorians from achieving space travel for many years. (Last Unicorn RPG module: All Our Yesterdays: The Time Travel Sourcebook)

In 2366, it was believed that the Barzan wormhole discovered near Barzan II was a stable passage between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. The Barzans opened up bidding for the wormhole and the Federation and the Ferengi Alliance were the principal bidders. However, tests by the crew of the USS Enterprise-D revealed that while the Alpha "end" was stable, the other end was constantly moving around, which resulted in a Ferengi team being stranded in the Delta Quadrant. (TNG episode: "The Price")

In the final year of the Occupation of Bajor, the Obsidian Order agent Leej Terrel of the Applied Science Directorate discovered one of the Red Orbs of Jalbador and attempted to use it to make artificial wormholes for the Cardassian Union. However, an incident during the evacuation of Terok Nor forced her to abandon her experiments. (DS9 novel: Millennium)

The only known artificially stable wormhole, the Bajoran wormhole, was discovered in the Denorios Belt of the Bajor system by Commander Benjamin Sisko in 2369. Sisko discovered that the wormhole had been constructed by the Prophets, and they would allow traffic to pass through the wormhole into the Gamma Quadrant. (DS9 episode: "Emissary")

The alien race known as the Shepherds were known to dwell within wormholes and had the capacity to manipulate them. (VOY novel: Cloak and Dagger) The Romulan Star Empire began research into the creation of stable artificial wormholes with some success being made by Telek R'Mor. He was later aided in his research by the rogue Shepherd Ambassador Lhaiu. (VOY novel: Ghost Dance)

The ancient Furies who were banished to the Delta Quadrant had the knowledge to create an artificial wormhole by destroying their star which created a subspace explosion that produced a shortly-lived but stable wormhole across quadrants. (VOY novel: The Final Fury)

In 2373, the Dominion was working on creating an artificial wormhole on the other side of the Badlands near Sector 283. (DS9 novel: Behind Enemy Lines)

The Caeliar were able to produce wormhole-like subspace tunnels for observation and communication with distant galaxies. (ST - Destiny novel: Gods of Night)

External links

• Wormhole article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
• Wormhole article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.