Light year

A light year, also light-year, abbreviated ly, is the distance light travels in one year. 3.26 light years make up a parsec, which was a unit of distance that was important in locating star systems in the known galaxy.

Since the Galactic Standard Calendar used a year of 368 days, the length of a Galactic Standard Light Year would have been 9,531,961,160,601,600 meters.

Behind the scenes
The above calculation assumes that the Galactic Standard Day, Hour, etc. and Meter are equal to Earth's, and results in a Galactic light year 0.75% longer than an Earth-based light year.

It is also possible that Galactic days (and hours etc.) were 0.75% shorter than their Earth equivalents, and that the light years are the same length. (see below)

The length of a light year depends on the exact length of one year. On Earth, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) uses a Julian year of 365.25 days, while other sources may use a Gregorian year of 365.2425 days, or another year altogether. ‡ Note that while Yahoo separately reports a year length of 365.24220 days, its rounding of the light year length to five digits results in a year length of ~365.2411 days.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic
 * Knight Errant
 * Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight
 * Death Star
 * Star Wars 7: New Planets, New Perils
 * Star Wars 38: Riders in the Void
 * Splinter of the Mind's Eye
 * The Empire Strikes Back: A Storybook
 * Star Wars 39: The Empire Strikes Back: Beginning
 * Star Wars 41: The Empire Strikes Back: Imperial Pursuit
 * Star Wars 50: The Crimson Forever
 * Star Wars: Invasion of Theed Adventure Game
 * Under a Black Sun
 * Shadows of the Empire novel
 * Shadows of the Empire audio book
 * Shadows of the Empire junior novelization
 * Heir to the Empire
 * Dark Force Rising
 * Heir to the Empire
 * Dark Force Rising