What does DS9 orbit?
I know Terok Nor used to orbit Bajor, and later they towed it over next to the wormhole. But everything has to orbit something, right? Does DS9 orbit the wormhole? Would this be affected by the wormhole’s opening and closing?
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Considering that the Bajoran religion is centred around the ‘Prophets’, the wormhole aliens, it is clear that the wormhole is always near Bajor.
This means that the wormhole itself is either orbiting Bajor itself, or is in an orbit around Bajor’s sun, moving parallel to Bajor.
So, the station is either in orbit around Bajor, or around the sun parallel to Bajor.
However, an orbit’s altitude is dependent on speed, so it might be very difficult to create a solar orbit that has an equal period to Bajor itself (astrophysicists may interject here), making a high orbit around Bajor (both for the station and the wormhole) the most likely scenario.
The wormhole itself does not seem to exert any gravitational effects on vessels entering and exiting it, so it should not affect the orbit of the station. (which, being an artificial construct, is acceptable)
It was originally built orbiting Bajor to process ore mined on Bajor.
When they wormhole was discovered nearby DS9 was towed much closer to the wormhole to support claiming it for the Federation – in a race against the Cardasians claiming it.
@dabbler Which of the Cardasians claimed it- Khloe, Kim, or the other one? ;-p
DS9 / the Federation, got there first and claimed it.
Cardasians lost out on making a claim to the wormhole.
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