Everyone knows Star Wars. It is the biggest franchise on the planet and a huge pop culture phenomenon that has been a cornerstone of many people’s childhood and lives. Famous for its fantastic films, iconic characters, and its fantasy creations such as Jedi, Sith and Lightsaber’s, the Star Wars franchise has deep and expansive lore to accompany this iconography.
A part of this lore is the galaxy in which it is set. Every fan knows the famous planets whether it be Tatooine, Coruscant, or Ach-To, and every fan also knows about hyperspace and how it is needed to cross the galaxy. But, what about other facts about the galaxy? Here are 15 facts you did not know about the Star Wars galaxy map.
Updated May 14th, 2020 by George Chrysostomou: The galaxy far far away is being explored this month more than ever thanks to the Skywalker saga being available on Disney+, so here’s some more facts about the famous map.
THE FIRST VERSION WAS PUBLISHED IN 1998
Until 1998 it was rare for fans to see the Star Wars galaxy mapped out in full. While tabletop gaming had tried to produce their own version of a map, this was the year that saw the official debut of a chart.
The map debuted in Behind The Magic which was a detailed encyclopedia of various information about the franchise. What’s more, it even included a place for Naboo before the planet had actually been put to screen.
THE GALAXY IS BILLIONS OF YEARS OLD
The galaxy is extremely old, despite the fact that this story was also from a long time ago. The actual age of the galaxy isn’t completely known, but there is evidence to suggest it’s over 13 billion years old.
This means that it has seen a huge number of eras and planets die and form, before coming into the periods of time that fans are familiar with such as the Old Republic and the Empire.
THE STAR WARS GALAXY IS ONE OF THE TRILLIONS OF GALAXIES
The entirety of the Star Wars canon takes place in the galaxy far, far away. Within said galaxy that is what it is known as “the Galaxy”. However, this galaxy in which everything fans love about Star Wars happens in, is one of the trillions in the universe.
That is where Star Wars takes place, a universe. This universe is made up of insane amounts of galaxies, one of which is “the Galaxy” where the Republic, the Empire, the Clone Wars, everything that occurs in the films and TV shows takes place.
IT HAS 2 ACCOMPANYING GALAXIES
In Attack Of The Clones on his search for Kamino, we hear Obi-Wan being told about the Rishi Maze by Dexter Jettster. What the Rishi Maze is, is a dwarf satellite galaxy.
The Rishi Maze is one of at least two galaxies which is in close orbit to the Galaxy. When the map in Attack of the Clones is shown by Obi-Wan, 2 accompanying galaxies can be seen. In Legends the second accompanying galaxy was known as Firefist. However, in Canon, it is yet to be identified.
ITS SIZE
As you can imagine, the Galaxy in which all these events take place is gigantic. According to the novel Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure, the Galaxy is over 100,000 light-years in size. For context, 1 lightyear is equivalent to 6 trillion miles, or 9 trillion kilometers.
Within those 100,000 light-years are an estimated (according to the Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia reference bok) 400 billion total stars. There are also (according to the same book) over 3.2 million habitable star systems - these being a group of planets/celestial bodies orbiting a star.
THE STAR MAPS
One of the most famous maps in the galaxy is known as the Star Maps. They were some of the earliest designs to be plotted in the galaxy and demonstrated the rise of one particular empire.
The Rakatan Infinite Empire was an incredibly large and powerful regime, which prided itself on the planets that it had taken over. These maps were therefore created in part for their own ego, to show the scale of their galactic victory.
HAS 10 REGIONS
The Star Wars galaxy map is made up of various planets, stars, etc, but how the map is separated is into what are called regions. From top to bottom in the Galaxy, there are 10 regions.
The 10 are as follows, the Deep Core, the innermost point of the Galaxy, rife with stars and nebulae; Core Worlds, consisting of the rich and important planets such as Coruscant; the Colonies, basically sitting between 2 regions and on trade routes; the Inner Rim, the frontier of civilizations for centuries; the Expansion Region, full of newer colonies; the Mid Rim, unofficially considered the extent of the Republic and Empire’s legal reach; the Outer Rim Territories, full of criminal systems such as Tatooine; the Western Reaches, where Jakku is; the Unknown Regions, a mapped and largely unexplored region of space; and Wild Space.
WILD SPACE IS LARGELY UNMAPPED
Beyond the Unknown Regions, is known as Wild Space. It exists across the entire circumference of the galactic disk as well as on the border of the Unknown Regions. It is located in such a place where nobody knows what is on the other side.
As well as unexplored, Wild Space is almost completely unmapped on the Galaxy map. There have been ventures there, of course, the mysterious Mortis is located in Wild Space, alongside planets Teth, Thume, Pion, Agaris, Lysatra, and Lira San.
IT’S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO TRAVEL IN UNMAPPED SPACE
It’s extremely difficult to actually travel around space without some kind of map to guide the pilot. This is why it’s almost impossible to go through the uncharted regions, with many explorers taking huge risks when they travel.
Even through hyperspace a pilot must know where to come out, for risk of ending up on some unknown moon or perhaps in the midst of extremely dangerous natural forces that are present throughout the universe.
THERE ARE SPECIES FROM OUTSIDE THE KNOWN REGIONS
Despite there being plenty of unknown regions on the maps, they aren’t unknown of course to the species that live there. The Star Wars universe has introduced audiences to some characters from beyond what has been plotted.
Admiral Thrawn is a character that was found at the edges of the galaxy and is said to be from the wildlands beyond the scope of the traditional galaxy. It’s a potentially lawless and especially dangerous place to be.
THERE ARE 5 MAJOR TRADE/HYPERSPACE ROUTES
Hyperspace routes - which go by a variety of other names including trade routes and hyperspace lanes - are referenced throughout Star Wars. They are paths that are established ways to navigate through hyperspace.
They are a way of connecting with other systems and planets and are crafted to be safe for ships to not have them crash into celestial bodies, as referenced by Han Solo in A New Hope. Star systems have several exit and entry points and Hyperwave beacons are used to guide ships. There are a variety of minor trade routes, but on the galaxy map, there are 5 major routes: the Corellian Run, the Corellian Trade Spine, the Hydian Way, the Perlemian Trade Route, and the Rimma Trade Route.
THE 10 REGIONS ARE DIVIDED INTO 1,000 SECTORS
The 10 Regions in the Galaxy are all made up of around a total of 1,000 sectors (according to Star Wars: Complete Vehicles (edition 2)). The sectors are also known as planetary sectors and are made up of a fluctuating number of Solar Systems.
On top of this, the sectors were regional political divisions which during the time of the Galactic Empire were split into Oversectors. These Oversectors are overseen by Grand Moffs such as Tarkin who presented the idea of both Oversectors and Grand Moffs to Palpatine.
THERE IS A GALACTIC GRID
In the Galaxy, a reference system is used to give locations of galactic points via grid coordinates. It is known as the Standard Galactic Grid, identified in the Star Wars: Rogue One: Rebel Dossier.
That same book places Kashyyyk on grid square P-9. Using this, areas on the map which sit around the galactic disk could be found via [galactic] north, south, east, and west.
THERE ARE WONDERS OF THE GALAXY
One of the things the Standard Galactic Grid was used for was pinpointing locations. In both Legends and Canon, galactic civilization marked points of interest as wonders of the galaxy.
In Legends, there is a list of 20 wonders of the Galaxy, as well as numerous others pointed out by various citizens. In canon, there is less specificity as there is the 5o wonders of the Core, 30 wonders of the Mid Rim, and the 25 wonders of the Outer Rim. This is information found in the Rogue One: Catalyst novel.
THE HEART OF THE GALAXY IS A SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE
The entirety of the Galaxy, the 400 billion stars, 3.2 million systems, 10 regions, 1,000 sectors, 5 major trade routes, all of it orbits around a supermassive black hole. The same black hole sits at the center of any full Star Wars galaxy map.
The whole Galaxy revolves and moves around this black hole which sits at the heart of the Galaxy. Black holes are celestial beings which are the resultant factor of a star exploding into a supernova, and they possess gravity which consumes anything it can within its reach. Everything that happens in Star Wars, any future films, books, TV shows, games, all of it revolves around a supermassive black hole.
