Distances in the interstellar view given in parsecs (pc)
Galactic coordinates, with distance in parsecs
The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure interstellar distances in the Space Stage. The player's galactic coordinates are also given as angle in degrees to an arbitrary axis along the galactic plane and distance in parsecs to the Galactic Core. The player's spaceship is limited to travelling within a maximum distance in parsecs that the Interstellar Drive can cover in one jump: level 1 (3 pc), level 2 (5 pc), level 3 (8 pc), level 4 (12 pc) and level 5 (20 pc).
Judging by the farthest point that the player can reach from the Galactic Core, the Spore Galaxy is around 13 000 pc in radius according to the galactic coordinates. However, as the coordinates multiply by 20 the distances shown in the interstellar view, the Galaxy's actual radius is around 650 pc.
The parsec is a real unit, primarily used in astronomy, unlike the secton which is a fictional unit of time in Spore. However, the parsec's notation is unusual in Spore, as the unit is displayed within parentheses and next to the value. For example, the game might display the distance to a star as "1(pc)", while the real-world convention would be to write it as "1 pc".
Discrepancies[]
The player moves nearly 20 pc towards the Galactic Core, whereas the coordinates indicate that it has travelled nearly 400 pc
When hovering one's cursor over the spaceship icon, the distance to the center of the galaxy displayed is exaggerated by a factor of 20 when compared to the distance shown by hovering the cursor over a nearby star. For example, if one travels 20 pc to a star in the direction of the Galactic Core, then the distance to the core shown in the bar below will decrease by 400 pc accordingly.
A possible reason for this discrepancy is that it reduces the number of stars needed to populate the Spore Galaxy by a factor of 400 (202) than the amount that is implied by the radius of the galaxy (as seen by visiting the very edge of the galactic disk).
Trivia[]
- A parsec is defined by drawing an imaginary triangle between the Earth, the Sun and a distant star. Where the angle at the end of the triangle closest to the distant star is one arcsecond (1/3600th of a degree) and the side of the triangle opposite to this angle is equal to one astronomical unit (AU) the distance between the Sun and the distant star is one parsec. There are no stars within one parsec of the Earth, the closest being Proxima Centauri at roughly 1.3 parsecs.
- One parsec is approximately equal to:
- 3.26 light-years.
- 206 000 astronomical units.
- 3.09 × 1013 kilometers (30.9 trillion kilometers in the short scale).
- 1.92 × 1013 miles (19.2 trillion kilometers in the short scale).
- Although the presence of the Sol System suggests that the Spore Galaxy is the Milky Way, the latter is around 16 000 pc in radius. This is somewhat larger than the radius given by the coordinates (≈13 000 pc) and much larger than the one calculated from the interstellar view (≈650 pc).