The Great Rift is an area of sparse star count between the Sagittarius and Orion Arms in the Alpha Quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy, laying coreward of the United Federation of Planets.
It was little explored by the Federation until the dispatch of the USS Marignano in 2369. (TNG novel: Intellivore)
Prior to the Marignano's mission, however, Lt. Commander Hwiii ih'iie-uUlak!ha' "hitched a ride" aboard a Lalairu vessel traveling through the region, in order to conduct his research into subspace hyperstring structure. They ventured into the area "above" the Great Rift and the galactic plane. In 2367, the Lalairu rendezvoused with the USS Enterprise near the Great Rift and Commander Hwiii transferred aboard to continue his research. (TNG novel: Dark Mirror)
Star systems near this region include 22 Ophiuchi, 127 Scorpii, 334 Scorpii, 1440 Ophiuchi B V, 1616 Ophiuchi VI, 1865 Serpens, B Hydri, Beta Ophiuchi VI, and Chi Scorpii. (TNG novel: Intellivore)
External links[]
- Great Rift article at Memory Beta, the non-canon Star Trek wiki.
- Great Rift (astronomy) article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
- Great Rift article at the Earth Sky website.
- Great Rift article at NASA's website.