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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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
- 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 7: New Planets, New Perils! (First appearance)
- Star Wars 38: Riders in the Void
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 39: The Empire Strikes Back: Beginning (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars 41: The Empire Strikes Back: Imperial Pursuit (Mentioned only)
- Star Wars 50: The Crimson Forever (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)
- Shadows of the Empire novel (Mentioned only)
- Shadows of the Empire audiobook (Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing) (Mentioned only)
- Shadows of the Empire audiobook (Talking Book Publishers Inc.) (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
"Counterstrike"—Star Wars Adventure Journal 8
"Retreat from Coruscant"—Star Wars Adventure Journal 7
Sources[edit | edit source]
Notes and references[edit | edit source]
External links[edit | edit source]
Light year on Wikipedia