Data File Updated: Friday, May 09, 2025

Here are some reference materials to aid with the visualization and perspective of the scales of objects and locations in Outsider. I plan to add as many diagrams and illustrations to this section as I can over time.

Useful Units of Measurement

Speed of light (in vacuum) = 299,792,458 meters per second
1 Light Second (LS) = 299,792 kilometers
1 Light Minute (LM) = 17,987,548 kilometers
1 Light Year (LY) = 9.46 x 1012 kilometers
1 Parsec (Pc) = 3.26 light years
1 Astronomical Unit (AU) = 149,597,870.691 kilometers (8.3 LM)
1 Earth day = 86,400 seconds
1 Earth (tropical) year in 2000 A.D. = 365 days, 5 h, 48 m, 45 s (31,556,925 s)
1 Earth gravity (g) = 9.80665 m/s2
1 Newton (N) = 1 kg*m/s2
1 joule (J) = 1 Newton*meter

Conversions

1 mile = 5,280 ft = 1.6093 km
1 inch = 2.54 cm
1 foot = 0.3048 m
1 pound = .4536 kg
1 ounce = 28.35 g
1 kg = 2.2046 lbs.
1 knot = 1.151 mph = 1.852 km/h
1 gallon = 3.7853 liters
1 ton (short) = 2,000 pounds = 907.18 kg
1 metric ton = 1,000 kg = 1.102 short tons
1 Newton = 0.2248 pounds

Ship Size Classes

Object Typical
Length (m)		 Typical Mass
(kilotons)		 Typical Max
Thrust (g)*		 Typical
Crew		 Examples
Torpedo, Buoy* 15 0.035 40-60 0 MR Torpedo
Fighter, Shuttle, Blister, DefSat* 30 0.250 40 0-4 Arrow
Gunboat 80 20 35 20 Umiak Gunboat
Frigate, Scout 150 50 35 100 Herald
Destroyer, Listening Post* 200 100 30 200 Warhammer
Cruiser, Base Station* 400 300 28 350 Scimitar
Battleship, Battlecruiser, Battle Station* 600 1,000 26 600 Greatsword
Flagship, Superheavy 800 2,000 24 1,000 Cry of the Wind
Ultraheavy 1600 9,000 18 ? TTK
Citadel* 800-4,000 2,000-25,000 <5 ? Azimol Citadel
Orbital Platform* (any) (any) <1 ? Mepona Station

*System Defense craft are spacecraft with no jump drive and only minimal propulsion, so the "max thrust" value is usually <5g.

Planetary Environment


Note: The sizes of the Earth and Moon in (Fig.V) are to scale with the distances between them. The ship icons are not to scale.

Earth Diameter: 12,756 km
Marth Mass: 5.972 x 10^24 kg
Mt. Everest Altitude: 8.8 km
Stratosphere Altitude: 50 km
Exosphere Altitude: 300 km
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Altitude: 300-800 km
International Space Station Altitude: ~350 km
Hubble Space Telescope Altitude: ~560 km		 Geostationary Orbit (GEO): Altitude 35,786 km (orbital radius 42,164 km)
Chandra X-ray Observatory Max Altitude: ~126,000 km (orbital apogee ~133,000 km)
Maximum Beam Weapon Range: ~300,000 km (~1 Light Second)
Earth-Moon Lagrange-1 Orbital Radius: 326,000 km (58,400 km from the Moon)
Moon Orbital Radius: 384,400 km
Moon Diameter: 3,476 km
Moon Surface Gravity: 0.17g
Moon Mass: 7.35 x 10^22 kg (1.2% of Earth's mass)

Solar System


Note: The sizes of the Sun and the planets in (Fig.VI) are NOT to scale, but the distances are. The jump zone indicates appropriate distance from the Sun (4-5 AU) but not location; the Alpha Centauri jump zone is well below the plane of the planets.

Object Mean Distance from the Sun Diameter
(km)		 Mass
(Earth = 1)		 Orbital Period
(Earth years)		 Rotation Period
(Earth Days)		 Axial
Tilt (°)		 Surface
Gravity (g)
km AU LM
Sun 0 0 0 1,392,000 332,918 - 25.05 7.25 28
Mercury 57,920,000 0.387 3.2 4,878 0.055 0.24 58.65 .027 0.38
Venus 108,208,000 0.723 6.0 12,104 0.815 0.62 -243 2.64 0.9
Earth 149,597,871 1.0 8.3 12,756 1.0 1.0 1.0 23.5 1.0
Moon - - - 3,476 0.0128 8.85 27.322 1.54 0.17
Mars 228,089,000 1.524 12.7 6,794 0.107 1.88 1.03 25.19 0.38
Ceres 418,832,587 2.766 23 487 0.00015 4.6 0.3781 ~4 0.028
Asteroid Belt ~419,000,000 ~2.8 ~23 - - - - - -
Jupiter 778,706,000 5.203 43.2 142,987 318 11.86 0.41 3.13 2.64
Saturn 1,427,653,000 9.539 79.1 120,536 95 29.46 0.44 26.73 0.93
Uranus 2,870,573,000 19.18 159.2 51,118 15 84.01 -0.72 97.77 0.89
Neptune 4,498,927,000 30.06 249.5 49,528 17 164.8 0.72 28.32 1.12
Pluto 5,902,784,000 39.44 327.4 2,370 0.0022 247.7 -6.38 60.39 0.06
Kuiper Belt ~6,000,000,000 ~40 ~332 - - - - - -
Haumea 6,452,000,000 43.13 357.9 1,436 0.00066 283.3 0.163 ~110 0.045
Makemake 6,850,000,000 45.79 380.1 1,478 0.0005 309.9 0.324 ~20 0.038
Eris 10,120,000,000 68 564 ~2,300 0.0028 560.9 1.01 ~40 0.08
Sedna 7.7576 x 1010 518 4,300 ~1,500 ~0.0005 ~11,400 0.42 ? ~0.04
Oort Cloud ~1.5 x 1013 ~60,000 ~500,000 - - - - - -

Note: the orbits of Pluto, Sedna and other trans-Neptunian objects are highly eccentric. Pluto's orbit varies from 30 to 49 AU, and Sedna's varies from 76 to 937 AU.


Note: The orbits above are to scale, but not the size of the planets. Image by NASA.


Note: The distance scale above is exponential, and the size of the Sun & planets is not to scale. Image by NASA.

Heliopause (boundary between solar wind and interstellar medium): 100 AU
Bow Shock (wake caused by the travel of the Sun through the interstellar medium): 230 AU
Distance to Voyager 1 from the Sun (as of June 2014): 128 AU (17.7 Light Hours), in the Interstellar Medium
Distance to Alpha Centauri: 4.37 LY = 271,900 AU

Interstellar


Note: Jump distances (in green) are in Light Years.

Object Type Distance
(LY)		 Mass
(Sol = 1)		 Radius
(Sol = 1)		 Luminosity
(Sol = 1)		 Age
(Gyr)		 Orbital Period*
(Earth years)		 Notes
Sol G2V 0 1 1 1 4.6 -  
Alpha Centauri A G2V 4.37 1.100 1.227 1.519 6 79.9 Binary
Alpha Centauri B K1V 4.37 0.907 0.865 0.500 6 79.9 Binary
Proxima Centauri M5.5Ve 4.24 0.123 0.141 0.0017 4.85 547,000** Flare Star
Barnard's Star M4Ve 5.98 0.144 0.196 0.0035 10 -  
Wolf 359 M6.5e 7.78 0.09 0.16 0.00002 0.1-0.35 -  
Lalande 21185 M2V 8.31 0.46 0.393 0.025 5-10 -  
Sirius A A1V 8.60 2.02 1.711 25.4 0.2-0.3 50.09 Binary
Sirius B DA2 8.60 0.978 0.0084 0.026 ? 50.09 White Dwarf
Luyten 726-8A M5.5V 8.73 0.102 0.14 0.00006 ? 26.52 BL Ceti
Luyten 726-8B M6V 8.73 0.100 0.14 0.00004 ? 26.52 UV Ceti
Epsilon Eridani K2V 10.49 0.82 0.735 0.34 0.2-0.8 -  
Ross 128 M4V 10.89 0.15 0.21 0.00036 ? - Flare Star
61 Cygni A K5V 11.41 0.70 0.665 0.153 6.1 678 Binary
62 Cygni B K7V 11.41 0.63 0.595 0.085 6.1 678 Binary
Tau Ceti G8V 11.9 0.783 0.793 0.52 5.8 -  
LHS 1565 M5.5V 11.99 0.113 ? ~0.001 ? - GJ 1061
YZ Ceti M4.5V 12.0 ? ? ? ? - Flare Star
Kapteyn's Star sdM1 12.76 0.274 0.291 0.001 ~10 -  
Van Maanen's Star DZ8 13.9 0.68 0.011 0.00017 3.13 - White Dwarf
Wolf 424 A dM6e 14.3 0.143 0.17 ? ? 15.5 Flare Star
Wolf 424 B dM6e 14.3 0.131 0.14 ? ? 15.5 Flare Star
Hip 15689 M4V 16.9 0.15 0.2 ? ? -  
LP 944-20 M9 18.5 0.07 ? ? ? - Brown Dwarf
82 Eridani G8V 19.71 0.70 0.92 0.74 6.1 -  

Note: *Orbital Period is listed for binary systems. **Proxima Centauri is the third component of the Alpha Centauri system.

Distance from Sol to Naam: 217 LY (60 parsecs)
Distance to Pleiades cluster (on the other side of Loroi space): 425 LY (130 parsecs)
Width of the Local Bubble: ~1000 LY (~300 parsecs)

Galactic

Thickness of galactic disk in Orion arm: <1,500 LY (<500 parsecs)
Density of stars in the local region: 0.120 stars/cubic parsec
Distance from Sol to the Galactic Center: ~30,000 LY (~9,000 parsecs)