For other uses, see Quantum.

For other uses, see Singularity.

A quantum singularity, or black hole, is an incredibly dense remnant of a star which has collapsed in on itself with such a force of gravity it pulls in everything in the electromagnetic spectrum, including light. The formation of a black hole could sometimes be observed in a supernova. People in the Federation sometimes referred to them as Hawking black holes after the 20th century Earth scientist, Professor Stephen Hawking. (TOS novel: The Entropy Effect)

History[]

By the 22nd century, the Vulcans had charted over 2,000 black holes in both the Alpha and Beta Quadrant. (ENT episode: "Singularity")

In 2267, the neutron star Nymyn underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole which drew the USS Enterprise into superspace. (TOS comic: "Siege in Superspace")

In November 2267, Zephram Cochrane was abducted from his home on Gamma Canaris N. The USS Enterprise brought Nancy Hedford/The Companion to rescue him. Eventually they wound up aboard a shuttle within a black hole. Temporal distortion from the black hole disruption brought them to May 2366, when they were recovered by the USS Enterprise-D. (ST novel: Federation)

In 2269, James T. Kirk fought illusory battles against an Irapina on the planet Anomaly. His second confrontation was a game fought from opposite sides of a black hole. Each player controlled ten missiles from an orbiting satellite. Trajectories were warped by gravity, and players had to account for that while trying to attack each other. The game ended in a stalemate. (TOS novel: Planet of Judgment)

In the year 2370, the Heran Modality made use of quantum black holes as warheads onboard their picket ships. (TNG novel: Infiltrator)

The USS Voyager became trapped by a black hole in the year 2371 where they experienced both unusual temporal as well as spatial distortions. They were, however, able to escape through the use of dekyon beams to open a hole in the event horizon. (VOY episode: "Parallax")

Jadzia Dax often studied quantum singularities in her role as the science officer of Deep Space 9. (DS9 short story: "The Devil You Know")

Technological uses[]

Power sources[]

As early as the 2260s, Starfleet had been using artificial quantum singularities as power sources, though only in a limited number of ships and planetary defense systems, and under license. This technology, though, did make its way into other vessels, such as the Rigellian Registry Vessel Queen Mary. (TOS novel: Prime Directive)

Planet-based versions were known as singularity plants. (TNG video game: Birth of the Federation)

By the mid 24th century, the Romulan Star Empire used artificial quantum singularities to power the warp cores of their starships, including the massive D'Deridex-class warbirds. Sometimes these quantum singularities were detectable by sensors. (TNG episode: "Timescape", DS9 episode: "Visionary")

A artificial quantum singularity was accidentally released in the Badlands by a Romulan vessel (DS9 - The Badlands novel: The Badlands, Part IV)

Similarly, the ancient communication relay in the Delta Quadrant was powered by an artificial quantum singularity. (VOY episode: "Hunters")

Also, scientists at the Mertens Orbital Research Station drew inspiration from the Romulans and had created a singularity as part of a complex power source in the station. (TNG video game: A Final Unity)

The Tigans also harvested the energy of a black hole, using their planet’s geothermic energy to maintain a containment field they held a microscopic black hole in a facility called the gravimatrix which provided Tigan with all its energy requirements. (TNG comic: "History Lesson")

Weapons[]

In 2267, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott redirected the full output of the USS Enterprise's warp engines into the implosion weapon of a small, automated Borg sphere, producing a microscopic black hole. The singularity emitted a brief surge of gamma radiation, then annihilated everything within 500 kilometers, saving the inhabited planet Tau Gamma IV. (TOS - New Visions comic: "Resistance")

In 2270, an Omega-weapon was fired at the K-class Archernar IV contact station. The blast destroyed the space station and formed a quantum singularity. Scott ejected the warp core of the USS Enterprise to repel the singularity out of the star system and save the inhabitants of Archernar IV. (TOS comic: "Mission's End, Issue 2")

By the year 2370, the Heran Modality were able to create small quantum black holes that were capable of being used as weapons that fit in the size of a torpedo. These warheads contained a mass of ten tons and were so small that it was not stable and in fact evaporated through quantum tunneling thus losing mass of one particle at a time until its blackbody temperature rises exponentially until it dies. Once this state was reached, the quantum black hole instantly releases all of its remaining mass as energy with the end result being similar to an matter-antimatter reaction bringing about a burst of high energy gamma waves making them a lot more potent then Federation photon torpedos. These quantum black holes were known to be rare and the method of their creation by the Herans was unknown which was beyond Starfleet science at the time. (TNG novel: Infiltrator)

The Romulans during the course of the war against the Taurhai Unity developed a Singularity torpedo which they began to equip on their Vereleus class starships. (Last Unicorn RPG module: The Way of D'era: The Romulan Star Empire)

The Grigari made use of singularity bombs in an alternate timeline called the War of the Prophets. In this reality, the Grigari were responsible for detonating the bomb on the planet Gateway which destroyed the entirety of Operation Guardian along with the Grigari forces stationed on the world. (DS9 novel: The War of the Prophets)

Propulsion[]

In 2376, a team from the USS da Vinci encountered "The Beast". A thorough examination of the vast vessel revealed that they used a black hole propulsion drive that enabled the ship to travel through space by creating artificial singularities. (SCE eBook: The Belly of the Beast)

Data storage[]

The ancient Manraloth species along with their sister civilizations employed black holes in a unique way as information storage devices with data embedded deep within the singularity which was recovered through quantum displacement. This made the information timeless and readily accessible even over the passage of centuries. (TNG novel: The Buried Age)

Connections[]

External links[]

• Quantum singularity article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
• Black hole article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.