Data File Updated: Sunday, April 27, 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
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

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
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)