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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.[1]
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.
| Source | year (days) | light year (meter) | light year (miles) |
|---|---|---|---|
| IAU | 365.25 | 9,460,730,472,580,800 | 5,878,625,373,184 |
| Gregorian | 365.2425 | 9,460,536,207,068,020 | 5,878,504,662,190 |
| 365.242199 | 9.460 528 4 ×1015 | 5.878 499 81 ×1012 | |
| Yahoo | 365.2411‡ | 9.460 5 ×1015 | 5,878,482,164,161 |
| Coruscant | 368 | 9,531,961,160,601,600 | 5,922,886,070,723 |
‡ 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 (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel (Mentioned only)
- Knight Errant
- Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight (Mentioned only)
- Death Star
"Passages"—Star Wars Adventure Journal 7- Han Solo at Stars' End (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars: X-Wing Aces Target Game
- Star Wars (1977) 7 (First appearance)
- Star Wars (1977) 38
- Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (Mentioned only)
- Splinter of the Mind's Eye (Mentioned only)
- "Only Droids Serve the Maker"—Star Wars Adventure Journal 10
- "A Bitter Winter"—Star Wars Adventure Journal 5
- The Empire Strikes Back: A Storybook
- Star Wars (1977) 39 (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars (1977) 41 (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars (1977) 50 (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars: Invasion of Theed Adventure Game
- Under a Black Sun
- Beyond the Rim
- "Tales of the Smoking Blaster"—Star Wars Gamemaster Handbook
- "Gone To Ground"—No Disintegrations
- "Idol Intentions"—Star Wars Adventure Journal 12 (Mentioned only)
- "The Longest Fall"—Star Wars Adventure Journal 11 (Mentioned only)
- "Laughter After Dark"—Star Wars Adventure Journal 15
- Shadows of the Empire novel (Mentioned only)
- Shadows of the Empire audiobook (Mentioned only)
- Shadows of the Empire junior novelization (Mentioned only)
- "Shintel Downtime"—The DarkStryder Campaign
- "Crisis"—The DarkStryder Campaign
- Heir to the Empire
- Dark Force Rising
- Dark Force Rising audiobook
- "Counterstrike"—Star Wars Adventure Journal 8
- "Retreat from Coruscant"—Star Wars Adventure Journal 7
