# The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars.webp]] **Creator:** The Overview Effekt · **Published:** Sep 25, 2023 · **Length:** 6:41 · [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tso5pSzBRDo) ## Outline ### 00:00 Intro - Questions to answer: how deep in space is Deep Space 9? How far is Alpha Centauri on an interstellar scale? Where was the contact in *Contact*? - The video places these stories relative to the solar system using real star position data. The creator admits stellar cartography "can be pretty dry stuff," so he made it "moist" (pretty and interesting). He teases a link between the Greys and the Xenomorphs. ### 00:41 The Milky Way - The galaxy is a disc ~100,000 ly across. Sol sits ~28,000 ly from the core. - Star Trek's USS *Voyager* was flung ~70,000 ly into the Delta Quadrant. DS9 sits at one end of the Bajoran wormhole, which leads into the Gamma Quadrant. ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars-t0045.webp]] ### 01:06 Zooming into a 350 ly bubble - At galaxy scale you can't tell Sol and DS9 apart, so he zooms into a 350 ly bubble. It holds more than 25,000 stars and dozens of sci-fi references, and the video visits only a few, moving outward toward DS9. ### 01:28 Alpha Centauri - The closest system is actually three stars. **Proxima Centauri** is 4.25 ly away. - It is the setting of countless stories, with "impressive failures": the Robinsons in *Lost in Space* got lost before arriving, and the *Event Horizon* (1997) gravity drive went through hell and back without ever reaching Proxima. ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars-t0110.webp]] - **Avatar's Pandora** orbits here. The lore is surprisingly plausible: unobtainium is a room-temperature superconductor used to contain antimatter in the reactors of the ISVs (interstellar vehicles). Combined with a laser-beamed light sail, the ships reach 70% of c and arrive in ~6 years. ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars-t0130.webp]] ### 02:45 Barnard's Star - The second-closest star is a red dwarf just under 6 ly away. It is the setting of Robert L. Forward's *Rocheworld* series. That series has a hard-SF light sail whose main sail splits apart and reflects the beam back onto the ship to slow it down. The creator wants to make a video on it. ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars-t0210.webp]] ### 03:07 Wolf 359 - The third-closest is a red dwarf 7.7 ly away, the site of the infamous Battle of Wolf 359 against the Borg (*Star Trek: The Next Generation*). ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars-t0250.webp]] ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars-t0310.webp]] ### 03:21 Epsilon Eridani, 40 Eridani, and Tau Ceti - **Epsilon Eridani** (10.5 ly) is the location of the Babylon 5 station. ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars-t0322.webp]] - **40 Eridani** (16 ly) is the home star of Vulcan ("until it wasn't," a nod to the 2009 film). - 40 Eridani and **Tau Ceti** are the settings of Andy Weir's *Project Hail Mary*. Its takeaway: the distances are vast, but reaching other stars within a human lifetime is a hard engineering problem, not a physical impossibility, even without FTL. ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars-t0336.webp]] ### 04:22 Vega (Contact) - In *Contact* (1997), Vega (25 ly away) is the source of the signal, but it is only a relay station. The Machine opens a wormhole into an intergalactic transit system that goes all the way to the galactic center. He recommends Carl Sagan's novel. ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars-t0430.webp]] ### 04:54 Zeta Reticuli - At 39 ly, Zeta Reticuli is home to the Xenomorph in the *Alien* franchise (moon LV-426, said as "LV-246" in the video). - It is also said to be where the "Greys" come from in UFO lore: Bob Lazar's claims, the Betty and Barney Hill star map, and "Project Serpo." The creator wonders whether the Greys and the Xenomorphs get along. ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars-t0500.webp]] ### 05:30 Dune - Caladan (House Atreides) is at **Delta Pavonis**, and Giedi Prime (House Harkonnen) is at **36 Ophiuchi**. Both are just under 20 ly away. - Arrakis (Dune) is at **Canopus**, ~310 ly away. ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars-t0540.webp]] ### 05:56 Deep Space Nine - DS9 has no real named star. It is only described as near the fictional Bajor system, and Star Trek has no official map. - The closest thing to canon is the 2002 book *Star Trek: Star Charts*, which puts DS9 ~62 ly from Sol. ![[images/The Location of Deep Space Nine and Sci-fi Stars-t0612.webp]] ### 06:20 Outro - The list is not complete. He asks viewers to suggest missed locations, like, and subscribe. ## Things Mentioned ### Spacecraft and stations - USS *Voyager*, Deep Space 9, the Babylon 5 station, ISVs (*Avatar*), *Event Horizon*, *Jupiter 2* (*Lost in Space*), the Machine (*Contact*) ### Stars and astronomical objects - Milky Way; Sol; Alpha Centauri / Proxima Centauri (4.25 ly); Barnard's Star (~6 ly); Wolf 359 (7.7 ly); Epsilon Eridani (10.5 ly); 40 Eridani (16 ly); Tau Ceti; Vega (25 ly); Zeta Reticuli (39 ly); Delta Pavonis and 36 Ophiuchi (~20 ly); Canopus (~310 ly); the Delta and Gamma Quadrants; the Bajoran wormhole ### Physics and science concepts - The speed of light as a limit; antimatter reactors; room-temperature superconductors; laser-beamed light sails and Forward's split-sail deceleration; wormholes; reaching the stars in a human lifetime without FTL ### Sci-fi works - *Star Trek: TNG*, *DS9*, *Voyager*, and *Star Trek* (2009); *Avatar*; *Lost in Space*; *Event Horizon* (1997); *Rocheworld* (Robert L. Forward); *Babylon 5*; *Project Hail Mary* and *The Martian* (Andy Weir); *Contact* (Carl Sagan; 1997 film); the *Alien* franchise; *Dune* (Frank Herbert) ### UFO lore - The Greys; Bob Lazar; the Betty and Barney Hill star map; Project Serpo ### Tools and sources - Real stellar position data; *Star Trek: Star Charts* (2002); book links in the description ## Biographies - **The Overview Effekt**: a YouTube channel that makes Blender-rendered 3D maps placing real stars and spaceflight history in context, including the Stellar Cartography series. The creator narrates with self-deprecating humor. - **Robert L. Forward** (1932–2002): an American physicist and hard-SF author, known for the *Rocheworld* series and pioneering laser light sail concepts. - **Andy Weir**: an American novelist, author of *The Martian* (2011) and *Project Hail Mary* (2021). - **Carl Sagan** (1934–1996): an astronomer and science communicator, author of the novel *Contact* (1985) that the 1997 film is based on. - **Bob Lazar**: claims to have worked on alien craft at "S-4" near Area 51, and says they came from Zeta Reticuli. - **Betty and Barney Hill**: a New Hampshire couple whose 1961 abduction claim includes a star map often linked to Zeta Reticuli. - **Frank Herbert** (1920–1986): the author of *Dune*.