The archive uses ordinary astronomical classifications for stars, but its maps are operational records rather than complete surveys. This reference explains the labels used in system details and the limits of the route network shown on each map.
Reading a stellar classification
A classification such as K3V combines temperature, a numerical subdivision, and luminosity class.
- K is the spectral class. From hottest to coolest, the ordinary sequence is O, B, A, F, G, K, M. K-type stars appear orange.
- 3 is the temperature subdivision within that class. Zero is the hotter end and nine the cooler end.
- V is the luminosity class. Class V stars are main-sequence dwarfs steadily fusing hydrogen in their cores.
The word dwarf does not mean that a star is planet-sized. It distinguishes an ordinary main-sequence star from a much larger and more luminous giant of similar temperature. The Sun is a G2V yellow dwarf. A3V and A7V stars are hotter white A-type main-sequence dwarfs.
Dwarfs, giants, and remnants
- V: main-sequence dwarf. The stable, hydrogen-burning phase in which a star spends most of its life.
- IV: subgiant. A star that has exhausted its central hydrogen and begun expanding away from the main sequence.
- III: giant. A greatly expanded and luminous evolved star.
- II: bright giant. An evolved star more luminous than an ordinary giant.
- I: supergiant. A massive, exceptionally luminous star in a brief late stage of its life.
Lower-mass stars generally pass from the main sequence through subgiant and giant stages before leaving white-dwarf remnants. Massive stars become supergiants and may end in core-collapse supernovae, leaving neutron stars or black holes. Despite the name, a white dwarf is not a white class-V star. It is an Earth-sized stellar remnant with its own classification system.
Main-sequence dwarfs dominate the stellar population because that phase is long-lived. Inhabited-system catalogues favor them still further: stable G- and K-type dwarfs offer long periods in which life and settlements can develop. Uninhabitable systems appear on an operational map when they are useful route markers, hazards, remote resource claims, or politically significant boundaries.
What the maps display
Scope note. A spatial record displays important systems and the hyperlane routes currently mapped into that record. It is not an exhaustive census of stars or hyperlanes.
Most systems in the depicted volume are omitted. The archive normally includes inhabited systems, major infrastructure, political anchors, navigational hazards, and uninhabited systems that matter to a displayed route. Countless minor or operationally irrelevant stars remain outside the record.
Many hyperlanes pass through systems that are not displayed. Any depicted system can therefore be approached through alternate routes absent from the visible network. The absence of a line does not establish that no hyperlane connection exists.
Discovering, validating, and traversing those unmapped routes falls outside the scope of the map. Displayed lines represent the routes relevant to the current record, not the only physically possible paths through the region. A line that ends at the edge of the chart continues toward a location beyond the depicted area.
Political boundaries are interpreted at the same level. They show the territorial claims and planning areas relevant to the record, while omitted systems and routes may complicate control on the ground.