Alpha Centauri

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The location of Alpha Centauri in "The Explored Galaxy" star chart

The location of the Alpha Centauri stars on a star chart

Alpha Centauri was the name of a trinary star system located approximately four light years distant from Sol. This inhabited system was home to the stars Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Alpha Centauri C. (TNG: "The Naked Now" production art)

Location

In 2293, the location of Alpha Centauri in the Milky Way Galaxy was labeled in the star chart "The Explored Galaxy", which was on display in Captain James T. Kirk's quarters aboard the USS Enterprise-A. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, okudagram)

In 2364, the location of Alpha Centauri was named in a star chart of a stellar neighborhood with Sol at the center. This chart was stored in the USS Enterprise-D library computer. Later that year, the chart was scanned by Outpost 63. (TNG: "The Naked Now", "The Last Outpost", production art)

History

When Kirk was captured in 1969 on Earth, and questioned on who he was by Lieutenant Colonel Fellini, a member of the US Air Force Air Police at the US 498th Airbase Group, Kirk explained that "the truth is, I'm a little green man from Alpha Centauri, a beautiful place. You ought to see it." (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday")

Between 2069 and 2119, Humans founded an outpost on one or more planets in this system. Among its residents in this formative period was Zefram Cochrane, who moved to the system from Earth after 2069. He left the system circa 2119 for an unknown destination. Prior to 2124, Alpha Centauri City was founded. (TOS: "Metamorphosis"; TNG: "The Neutral Zone", display graphic; ENT: "Future Tense") Alpha Centauri was among the earliest systems to be colonized by Humans in the early space explorations. The other known systems included Terra Nova's system and the Vega system. (ENT: "Fortunate Son", "Twilight")

Centauri VII was once the home of the artist Taranullus. Original prints of his creation lithographs were rare antiques by 2269. (TOS: "Requiem for Methuselah")

Prior to the 2260s, the University of Alpha Centauri was founded on a planet in the system. (TNG: "Qpid")

In 2269, Kirk argued in favor of having Sargon and his companions take over the bodies of the crew, and emphasized the benefits that it might possibly have on mankind, he explained, "they used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon or that we hadn't gone on to Mars or the nearest star?" (TOS: "Return to Tomorrow")

In 2338, Starfleet science officer Greta Vanderweg was born in the Alpha Centauri system. (DS9: "Field of Fire")

In the mid-24th century, Dr. Leah Brahms resided on this planet. She was a student at the University of Alpha Centauri and graduated from this university with a Bachelor of Science in Subspace Physics, cum laude. (TNG: "Booby Trap", okudagram)

In 2365, after Doctor Katherine Pulaski was abducted by James Moriarty, Geordi La Forge believed she planned to "lead Data on a wild goose chase and then recount the story to everyone between here and Alpha Centauri." (TNG: "Elementary, Dear Data")

After the Dominion invaded and conquered Betazed in 2374, they were in a position to threaten Vulcan, Andor, Tellar, and Alpha Centauri. (DS9: "In the Pale Moonlight")

In an alternate timeline, caused by the death of Gabriel Bell in 2024, Romulan transmissions were detected in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri in 2371. (DS9: "Past Tense, Part I")

In another alternate timeline, the Xindi destroyed all Human outposts they could find, after destroying Earth, including the ones located on Mars, Alpha Centauri and Vega colony in 2154. (ENT: "Twilight")

Template:Alpha Centauri system

Appendices

See also

• Alpha Centauri City
• Centauri VII
• University of Alpha Centauri

Background information

According to Startrek.com, Alpha Centauri (Proxima) was located about 4.3 light years from Sol. [1] According to Star Fleet Technical Manual, the Concordium of Planets, located in the Alpha Centauri system, was a founding member of the United Federation of Planets. According to The Worlds of the Federation, the seventh planet in the system was the homeworld of a group of Humans, called Centaurians. Evidence was found that they were in fact originally Greeks transplanted to the planet in the 3rd century BC.

The association of Alpha Centauri as the fifth founding member was also referenced in the "It's Federation Day!" newspaper article, created as background material for Star Trek Generations. According to that article, Alpha Centauri had recently gained its independence. Titus Cleet, who signed the founding document of the Federation, was the system's ambassador.

According to Star Trek: Star Charts (pgs. 19, 36, 45, "United Federation of Planets I", "United Federation of Planets IV"), in the early 22nd century, an Earth colony was founded on a M-class world in this system. This world had the same name as the system. In 2120, Zefram Cochrane departed from Alpha Centauri on his final voyage. In the mid-22nd century, Alpha Centauri was a destination on the Earth trade routes. The colony traded with Earth and Vulcan. Alpha Centauri became a Federation founding member in 2161. In 2378, Alpha Centauri was a member planet. The Alpha Centauri system was located in or near Federation space. Alpha Centauri A was a G-class star with a magnitude of +5, which was the same brightness of Sol. Alpha Centauri B was a K-class star. This system was located in Sector 002, also known as the Alpha Centauri sector, the second sector to be explored by Earth ships.

The chart naming stars within twenty light years of Sol was originally drawn by Rick Sternbach for the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology in the late 1970s. Found on page 77, this chart showed Earth commercial and exploration routes after the use of warp drive began. Alpha Centauri was the terminus for two major commercial routes, Epsilon Eridani-Alpha Centauri and Sol-Alpha Centauri.

Alpha Centauri was misspelled as "Alpha Centuri" in the "The Explored Galaxy" star chart graphic seen in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country.

In the real world, in 2012, astronomers announced the discovery of Alpha Centauri Bb. This extrasolar planet, unconfirmed as of 2014, might be a Earth-size terrestrial planet. Attempts to locate other planets in the Alpha Centauri system have been, to date, unsuccessful.

Apocrypha

The novel Articles of the Federation also established that Alpha Centauri was the fifth founding member of the Federation, along with Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, and Tellar.

William Shatner's Mirror Universe Trilogy (Spectre, Dark Victory, and Preserver) suggested that Zefram Cochrane lived on Alpha Centauri IV; likewise, his mirror counterpart lived on the mirror Alpha Centauri IV. Spock and his counterpart compared and contrasted the histories of the two universe and realized that the differences in the naming a lake on the planet (Lake Sloane in the primary universe, Lake Riker in the mirror universe) suggested that first contact may have been the point of divergence between the universes and that the divergence may have been caused by the presence of the Borg and the USS Enterprise-E, a possibility disproved by "In a Mirror, Darkly".

According to the PC CD-ROM game Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, the 2160s-era Cochrane-500 Fusion Drive was manufactured on Alpha Centauri. These engines were well made and still in use a century later.

In the FASA role playing game the Alpha Centaurians were the first extraterrestrial civilization Humans encounter. The historic meeting occurred in 2042 when the Earth's United Nations space craft, the UNSS Icarus, utilizing a Bussard collector, arrived in the Alpha Centauri system. In 2048, Zefram Cochrane, an Alpha Centarian, sent his warp drive discovery to Earth. This contrasts with Star Trek canon material, which establishes that Cochrane was an Earth-born Human.

Like in the FASA game, the Last Unicorn role playing game, and the Decipher RPG, Alpha Centauri was already inhabited by a humanoid species when Terran explorers first ventured there in 2066. The Terrans traded their warp drive technology for Centaurian terraforming technology, to repair Earth's shattered ecosystem in the aftermath of World War III.

External links

• Alpha Centauri at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Alpha Centauri at Wikipedia
• Alpha Centauri at the Internet Stellar Database