Galaxy
From Lexicanum
A Galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system consisting of stars, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and dark matter. Most galaxies are several thousand to several hundred thousand light years in diameter and are usually separated from one another by distances on the order of millions of light years. The Imperium exists within the Milky Way galaxy, a large spiral with a total mass of about 200-400 billion stars.
The Imperial worlds are scattered throughout most of this galaxy, but the Tyranids come from a completely different galaxy, one in which they have consumed all life. It would take a very long time to travel between galaxies. Millennia ago, probes were sent out from Terra to circumnavigate the universe. The majority of the communications these probes pick up are identified as Orkish. This shows how widespread the Orks are.
Maps
This is a map of the Warhammer 40.000 galaxy:
Notable regions of the galaxy
- Spiral Arms - comprise recent stars and gas clouds, most of the galaxy's inhabited worlds are here
- Galactic Core - consists of older and cooler stars and a large nucleus of hydrogen and other gases, there are few inhabitable worlds here
- Halo Stars
- Galactic Diameter - 100,000 light years
- Thickness of Disc - 2,000 light years
- Earth/Terra - 25,000 light years from the galactic core in the main western spiral arm
- The Eastern Fringe - beyond the reach of the Astronomican and outside the easy reach of the Imperium. It is known to contain human and alien planets, both advanced and primitive
- Wilderness Space - any part of the galaxy which is unexplored or unreachable to the Imperium
- The Homeworlds - the Homeworlds lie on the edges of the galactic hub and represent the remnants of one of the first areas of human exploration. When human explorers first began to study this area they found unique and valuable minerals in these ancient stars and on their dead planets
- Segmentae
