Star Trek: 10 Strangest Space Anomalies You May Have Forgotten

In the real world, many versions of quantum field theory and string theory predict the existence of cosmic strings, one-dimensional topological defects that formed when the early universe went through a phase transition. To simplify, they're basically thought to be massive one-dimensional objects. They are purely theoretical in reality, but in Trek, the Enterprise-D was able to find one.

In the Next Generation episode The Loss, the ship detected a cosmic string by observing the effects of particles around it. The string was found to have a length of 107 kilometres and a gravitational field as powerful as a black hole, but with a width and height of less than a single proton.

The strangest thing is that the Enterprise actually detected two-dimensional alien lifeforms living in the string. A one-dimensional object existing in three-dimensional space is weird enough, but not nearly as weird as two-dimensional beings living in a one-dimensional object, inside of a three dimensional universe. Unfortunately, the episode didn't do much to explore this concept, and instead focused more on the ship becoming trapped in the gravity of the cosmic string and trying to escape.