The humanoid people of the planet Kataan, who died when their sun went nova a thousand years ago and who sent out a probe so that one person might remember them.
The people of Kataan were humanoids closely resembling humans, living in small, close communities such as the village of Ressik. Their technology had only just reached the stage of launching simple rockets when their scientists realised that the sun was failing and that a lasting drought would end in the death of the planet.
They appear in the Next Generation episode The Inner Light. Unable to save themselves, they built a probe that links with the mind of whoever finds it. Picard is the one it reaches, and in about twenty-five minutes he lives some forty years as the ironweaver Kamin, with his wife Eline, his friend Batai and their children.
At the end Kamin watches the launch and is told its purpose. Picard wakes with a whole life's memories of a vanished people and with Kamin's flute, found inside the probe.