Debris Debris was a term for scattered materials , either natural or artificial , both in a habitable environment as in space . Spaceborne debris in particular might potentially be concentrated in a debris field ( or cloud ) . An asteroid field might be identified as " asteroid al debris " , while comet ary debris also existed . Debris might also be referred to as rubble , space debris ( if spaceborne ) or colloquially as " space junk " ( ) or " space dust " . ( ) Debris fields might also come in the form of a waste zone , where people would abandon their waste in space . One such zone was located near the Caretaker ' s array . ( ) The destruction of a spacecraft usually left debris , to the point that a lack thereof was considered puzzling or even impossible . ( ) . After the disappearance of a Klingon ship following an incident in 2365 , the lack of debris indicated that the ship must be cloak ed . ( ) However , the destruction of a ship by a plasma storm might not leave debris , and the explosion of a cloaked mine might also result in a lack of debris . ( ; ( ) A catastrophically close encounter with a black hole could potentially be severe enough that not even debris was found . ( ) Furthermore , the imaginary photonic cannon was said to have annihilated a Borg sphere , leaving no debris for sensors to pick up . ( ) In one case , while initially no debris was detected , ultimately small metallic objects were found . ( ) Destruction by warp drive overload might reduce the amount of debris . ( ) The destruction of a planet was also expected to leave debris . ( ) Xindus was an example of a former planet being reduced to debris , resulting in a debris field nearly eighty million kilometer s long . Several worlds in the Calindra system were also reduced to debris . ( ) Force field emitter s might be used to contain any blast debris generated in weapons tests . ( ) Analysis of debris . Artificial debris might be analyzed to discover its origins or the cause of the destruction , either by a remote scan or by bringing it , or a sample of it , in for more detailed analysis . For example , the debris of the Xindi weapon prototype was analyzed by both a Vulcan research team and Humans , the analysis including quantum dating it to determine its age . ( ) Another way to date debris was through carbon traces , as happened on the debris of a Borg sphere found in the Arctic Circle on Earth in 2153 . ( ) A ship ' s mission recorder might be found in its debris , though the magnetic field from duranium present in that debris might mask it . ( ) Lack of organic material implied that a ship was unmanned , though lack of evidence of Human remains on a destroyed ship only made it a possibility that the occupant was not killed . ( ; ( ) It was possible to determine the last course of a destroyed vessel from the dispersal pattern of the debris . ( ) In 2369 , the the Romulan Warbird discovered a debris field instead of the Corvallen freighter they were scheduled to meet with . Investigation of the debris pattern by the " Enterprise " was able to determine that it was not consistent with destruction by malfunction or a reactor core breach . ( ) After the destruction of the Kumari , duranium alloy in the debris indicated that it was a combat vessel . The pattern in the the debris field indicated that their reactor seemed to have breached , and further analysis indicated that it had been destroyed by Tellarite weapons . However , the details leading to the latter conclusion were faked . ( ) In 2366 , the " Enterprise " picked up a scattering of debris in extended orbit of a planet in the Zeta Gelis star cluster , and by detecting refined metals and other synthetic compounds was able to determine that it was the remains of a vessel larger than the one they had previously found on the planet ' s surface . In the same year , analysis of the debris of the Tanuga IV research station was seen to be consistent with an overload of the station ' s reactor core . ( ) Debris might be sifted through for bomb fragments . ( ) In 2367 , Duras bombed a " Sonchi " ceremony aboard K ' mpec ' s cruiser . Analysis of the debris determined the explosive to be a triceron derivative . ( ) However , debris might be doctored . The destruction of the " Kumari " was done in such a way that the incorrect conclusion would be reached that it was destroyed by Tellarite weapons , and two centuries later , Varria left materials in the debris of a destroyed shuttle indicating that its occupant , the android Data , had been destroyed as well . ( ; ( ) Sensor interference and navigational hazard . Debris might interfere with sensor readings . The graviton ellipse encountered by " Voyager " in 2376 was full of debris , refracting sensor readings and making it hard to locate a specific artifact in the anomaly . ( ; ) It was unusual for Galaxy class sensors to be unable to penetrate debris . However , handheld scanners might have trouble doing so . ( ) During the Xindi incident , Shuttlepod 2 landed on an asteroid and had trouble taking of again because there was debris in its intake manifold . However the intakes could be rigged to withstand cometary debris . ( ) A nebula cluster inside the Briar Patch contained comet ary debris as well as pockets of unstable Metreon gas , making it inhospitable to Starfleet ships . ( ) Tactical use of debris . Spaceborne debris might be used tactically . The Menthar s were known to hide Aceton assimilator s in floating debris as a booby trap . ( ) It was possible to hide in a debris field , as " Enterprise " did at one point during the Xindi incident . ( ) In 2266 , a Romulan ship intruding into the neutral zone released debris in an attempt to trick the investigating Starfleet vessel into thinking it was destroyed . It later repeated the maneuver , but hid a nuclear weapon into the debris , dealing a severe to its opponent when they tried to investigate . ( ) Starfleet phaser s configured right could reduce a pumping station to a pile of debris . ( ) The planet killer operated by reducing planet s to debris and then digesting it for fuel . This was the fate of the seven planets in the L - 370 system . ( ) Debris as a result of asteroid neutralization . A common practice to deal with asteroid s threatening planets was to reduce them to debris , which then may or may not need to be further dealt with . In 2368 , the " Enterprise " - D managed to reduce an asteroid threatening Tessen III to a debris field . The remaining debris was determined to pose no threat to the planet . ( ) An asteroid threatened a Nezu colony in 2373 . attempted to vaporize the asteroid using its weapons , but only managed to fragment it into debris , most of which continued on a collision course with the planet . The debris was later determined to be composed of artificial materials . ( ) Other encounters . The " Yonada " asteroid ship was powered atomically , causing it to leave a trail of debris . ( ) In 1996 , time travel ing " Voyager " personnel destroyed a truck supposedly containing a timeship , only to scan the debris and find that that was not the case . ( ) After Terra Nova was hit by an asteroid in the late 21st century , a debris cloud formed in the atmosphere , though not reaching far enough to affect the southern hemisphere . The debris was thick enough that it blocked a message to Earth from getting out . ( ) In 2151 , found the surrounded by a lot of debris in the aftermath of a Nausicaan attack . ( ) Later that year the occupants of found only debris at the point where they were scheduled to meet with " Enterprise " and , unable to make a detailed scan , incorrectly assumed that the ship had been destroyed . ( ) In 2152 , " Enterprise " encountered a trinary system with a black hole , which contained a debris field with a considerable amount of debris . ( ) " In an alternate timeline where the Xindi destroyed Earth and other Human outposts , they later reduced a convoy of surviving Humans to a field of debris in the Mutara system in 2155 . " ( ) In 2154 , " Enterprise " came upon a planet with a debris cloud in orbit , the remains of a destroyed Klingon shuttlecraft . ( ) Later that year , when " Enterprise " came upon the remains of the Earth ship " Ticonderoga " , they found debris consisting of hull fragments , nacelle casings and several Human bodies . ( ) In 2266 , the was to rendezvous with the " Antares " , only to find debris of the destroyed ship instead . ( ) Later that year , an aggressive Romulan intrusion in the neutral zone resulted in the destruction of Earth Outpost Station s . They were pulverized , reduced to dust and debris . ( ) During the of 2267 , the fired upon a Klingon vessel on 100 % dispersal pattern , quickly destroying the ship to the point that only drifting debris registered . ( ) After being missing in space for six years , debris belonging to the was located near 892 - IV in 2268 . ( ) Later that year , a space amoeba was discovered , the outer layers of which in 2268 were studded with space debris and waste . ( ) In 2270 , the was left as space junk following an attack that left the engine s inoperable . ( ) After the remains of the " Batris " was found in 2364 , debris was analyzed . ( ) Later , after Shuttlecraft 13 went down on Vagra II , 2364 , scans of the planet determined that it was trapped under a lot of debris . ( ) Soon after the " Enterprise " detected an ancient capsule which appeared to be from Earth . Commander Riker dismissed the probe as space debris and advised for it to be left alone on its course which would eventually see it destroyed . However , Data insisted on investigating it and found it to be a cryonics satellite containing frozen but revivable Humans . ( ) In 2365 , a Klingon ship detected debris in the upper atmosphere of Theta VIII . A follow up mission by Starfleet found debris in a loose elliptical orbit of the planet , which turned out to be of the long - lost Earth ship " Charybdis " . ( ) In the 2367 search for a missing shuttlecraft in the Pentarus system , the " Enterprise " found debris , though not enough to account for the entire craft . ( ) In 2368 , a Ferengi cargo ship went down in the Hanolin asteroid belt , leaving debris spread over a hundred square kilometers . ( ) After having lost their memories and being manipulated by the Satarran s later that year , the crew discovered metallic debris near their ship and speculated that they might have been engaged in battle . ( ) Also that year , the " Enterprise " found the debris of a Borg scout ship , and a surviving drone inside it . ( ) Upon the destruction of the shuttlecraft " Fermi " in 2369 , the debris was recovered by its mother ship . ( ) In the 2370 search for the missing , at one point it was reported that no debris had been found yet . ( ) Later that year , the " Enterprise " encountered a debris field in the Hekaras Corridor that did not show up on any of the Federation charts of that corridor . It consisted primarily of duranium and polycomposite fragments which suggested a ship . ( ) Not long after , Starfleet Intelligence received information that a Romulan warbird had located a piece of debris in the Devolin system which was positively identified as being from the Pegasus . ( ) Also that year , the " Enterprise " detected debris of what could have been a Federation escape pod inside Cardassian space . This , together with an intercepted Cardassian report , indicated that Ensign Sito Jaxa had been killed . ( ) In 2371 , the and the " Val Jean " detected a debris field where they located a small vessel and a humanoid lifeform . ( ) When the Caretaker ' s array was destroyed in 2371 , the debris was scanned and found to be particulate dust and metallic fragments composed of an unknown alloy , as well as vapour composed of hydrogen , helium , and argon . It was more briefly described as there being nothing was left but some fused pieces of metal alloy . ( ) A planet destroyed by polaric radiation in that same year initially showed up on " Voyager " s sensors as a debris cloud of differentially charged polaric ion s . ( ) In 2372 , " en route " to rescue Gul Dukat , the detected the wreckage of a number of Cardassian starships attacked by the Klingons . ( ) Soon after , " Voyager " followed a path of ships reduced to debris to find their missing commander Chakotay . In the course of the same incident , a young Kazon was shown debris and led to believe that it was Chakotay that had destroyed the ship it was from . ( ) The 2373 mineral survey of Torga IV turned up a lot of rocks that crewman Muniz labeled class five pyroclastic debris . ( ) In 2373 , a Vostigye station was found to be destroyed by astral eddy s . The resulting debris field encompassed nearly eighty cubic kilometers and consisted of boronite , sarium and carbon - 60 composite s , which was considered consistent with it having been a space station . ( ) While traversing Borg space soon after , " Voyager " encountered the debris of fifteen destroyed Borg cubes , the first sign that they had wandered into the Borg - Species 8472 War . ( ) In 2375 , when the " Delta Flyer " went missing on an away mission , the " Voyager " crew anxiously awaited any news , including the possibility that the search teams might have found debris or life signs . Eventually debris was located . ( ) Soon after , " Voyager " encountered what at first sight appeared to be an asteroid field , 120 kilometers across , but eventually turned out to be the debris of a destroyed Borg cube . This was determined when tetryon particles consistent with the atmosphere within a cube were detected within the debris . ( ) Later that year , no debris was detected in the area of a subspace sinkhole encountered by " Voyager " . On a planet inside the sinkhole , Starfleet personnel detected " engine debris " on the surface . ( ) Also in that year , " Voyager " responded to a distress call , but by the time they reached it , there was only debris in the form of residual deuterium , antineutron s , and traces of dichromate s . With so little left of the ship , Captain Janeway in her log noted the cause of destruction as unknown . ( ) The Vaadwaur subspace corridor s were filled with debris , including metal fragments , plasma exhaust and organic residue . Captain Janeway described them as a garbage stream . ( ) In 2377 , " Voyager " went scavenging in a Borg debris field near the Yontasa Expanse . Later that year , " Voyager " destroyed a Borg ship , leaving only a few components intact , and retrieved eight kiloton s of debris . In 2378 , " Voyager " came upon an alien testing ground littered with metallic debris . ( ) Later that year , a " Voyager " shuttle crashed on Ledos , leading debris to be scattered over several kilometers . The primitive natives of the area started to gather the debris in order to imitate the shuttle survivors , a major concern to the Starfleet crew who did not want to contaminate the culture . Eventually the debris was retrieved . ( ) In the 29th century , Captain Braxton of the timeship " Aeon " found debris from " Voyager " s secondary hull after the destruction of the Sol system , and concluded that they were responsible . ( )