In the Ecumene, there are almost as many classification systems for various types of celestial body as there are cultures. The Basic Classification system is fairly widespread, though it badly neglects planets, and takes up the first part of this page- the latter is a similarly common but less neglectful classification system for gravitational groupings of stars.
Basic Classification
- Non-Gaseous Planets*
- silver (metallic)
- brown (carbonaceous composition)
- gray (silicaceous composition)
- teal (aquatic composition)
- s/b/g/t world
- Gaseous Planets
- cyan (methane clouds)
- amber (ammonia clouds)
- ivory (water clouds)
- glaucous (cloudless)
- ebony (alkali metal clouds)
- viridian (silicate clouds)
- c/a/i/g/e/v world
- Sub-Conditional Fusors (Sub-Brown Dwarfs)
- teal (methane clouds)
- amber (ammonia clouds)
- ivory (water clouds)
- glaucous (cloudless)
- ebony (alkali metal clouds)
- jade (silicate clouds)
- t/a/i/g/e/j subfusor
- Conditional Fusors (Brown Dwarfs)
- violet (Y)
- ruby (T)
- maroon (L)
- crimson (M)
- v/r/m/c subfusor
- Standard Fusors (Normal Stars)
- Red (M)
- Orange (K)
- Yellow (G)
- Pale (F)
- Mint (A)
- Azure (B)
- Ultramarine (O)
- R/O/Y/P/M/A/U fusor/protofusor
- Nonstandard Fusors (Weird Stars)
- Verdigris (Blue dwarf)
- Scarlet (S/Early Carbon star)
- Carmine (C/Late Carbon star)
- Blue (O/Wolf-Rayet star)
- Indigo (Wolf-Rayet star)
- V/S/C/B/I fusor/protofusor
- Standard Post-Fusing Objects (Stellar Remnants)
- Ivory (Diamond planet/former star)
- Cream (White dwarf)
- Turquoise (Neutron star)
- Dark (Alternative to black hole)
- Black (Black hole)
- I/C/T/D/B postfusor
- Nonstandard Post-Fusing Objects (Weird Stellar Remnants)
- Onyx (Black dwarf)
- Violet (Thorne–Żytkow object)
- Slate (Exotic star)
- Jet (Q-star)
- Gold (Quasi-star)
- O/V/S/J/G postfusor
- Extremely Nonstandard Fusors (Really Weird Stars)
- Transparent (Boson star)
- Pink (H/Frozen star)
- Alabaster (Iron star)
- T/P/A fusor/protofusor
The Basic Classification System defines a "planet" as any object that is not some variety of fusor/former fusor nor a large body that formed from gravitational collapse rather than accretion.
Basic Sizes
- 0 - Hypergiant
- Fusors: -8+ AVM Above Standard
- Gaseous Planets to Conditional Fusors: >60 Jupiter Masses
- Non-Gaseous Planets: >40 Earth Masses
- I - Supergiant
- Fusors: -8 to -6 AVM Above Standard
- Gaseous Planets to Conditional Fusors: >30 Jupiter Masses
- Non-Gaseous Planets: >15 Earth Masses
- II - Greater Giant
- Fusors: -6 to -4 AVM Above Standard
- Gaseous Planets to Conditional Fusors: >10 Jupiter Masses
- Non-Gaseous Planets: >5 Earth Masses
- III - Giant
- Fusors: -4 to -2 AVM Above Standard
- Gaseous Planets to Conditional Fusors: >5 Jupiter Masses
- Non-Gaseous Planets: >2.5 Earth Masses
- IV - Lesser Giant
- Fusors: -2 to -1 AVM Above Standard
- Gaseous Planets to Conditional Fusors: >1 Jupiter Masses
- Non-Gaseous Planets: >1 Earth Masses
- V - Standard
- Fusors: -3 to +15 AVM, Depending On Type
- Gaseous Planets to Conditional Fusors: >64 Earth Masses
- Non-Gaseous Planets: >0.6 Earth Masses
- VI - Dwarf
- Fusors: +1 to +2 AVM Below Standard
- Gaseous Planets to Conditional Fusors: >16 Earth Masses
- Non-Gaseous Planets: >0.1 Earth Masses
- VII - Greater Subdwarf
- Fusors: +2 to +3 AVM Below Standard
- Gaseous Planets to Conditional Fusors: >4 Earth Masses
- Non-Gaseous Planets: >10 Centiearth Masses
- VIII - Lesser Subdwarf
- Fusors: +3+ AVM Below Standard
- Gaseous Planets to Conditional Fusors: >0.0 Earth Masses
- Non-Gaseous Planets: >0.0 Earth Masses
Star Clusters and Nebulae
Within the Ecumene's unified range of exploration- which varies greatly, but for this specific instance is about ten kilolightyears in every direction (note that a journey using fast drives to this distance is about nine years, one way)- there are perhaps a billion stars, but considerably less well-surveyed stars. Even a star directly visited by an expedition might only have some planets catalogued, and then may miss more- especially if a planet is more than just a rockball. This means it is far easier to divine the dispositions of grouped stars than the dispositions of individual stars- most small anomalies are discovered on later expeditions rather than the first to visit. Within the unified range of exploration, there are thousands of star clusters and nebulae of all sorts- even in the range of feasible inhabitation, there are hundreds.
Clusters
- 3 Bound Starways (0 nearby) (galaxy within another)
- 19 Torn Starways (1 nearby) (stellar stream)
- 29 Spherical Clusters (2 nearby) (globular cluster)
- 7 Dispersing Spherical Clusters (1 nearby) (extended globular cluster)
- 4 Great Star-Forming Clusters (0 nearby) (super star cluster)
- 78 Small Star-Forming Clusters (7 nearby) (embedded cluster)
- 417 Dispersing Post-Formation Clusters (29 nearby) (open cluster)
- 921 Dispersed Post-Formation Clusters (47 nearby) (stellar association)
- 1403 Greatly Dispersed Post-Formation Clusters (51 nearby) (moving group)
Nebulae
- 33 Great Star-Forming Clouds (2 nearby) (giant molecular cloud/H II region)
- 219 Other Ionized Clouds (11 nearby) (other emission nebula)
- 581 Embedded Star-Forming Clouds (27 nearby) (molecular cloud in nebula/small H II region)
- 52 Great Remnant Clouds (3 nearby) (supernova remnant)
- 2810 Small Star-Forming Clouds (78 nearby) (bok globule/other dark nebula)
- 1593 Greater Starjets (58 nearby) (reflection nebula)
- 871 Small Remnant Clouds (31 nearby) (planetary nebula)
- 893 Deionized Remnant Clouds (27 nearby) (protoplanetary nebula)
- 7238 Lesser Starjets (257 nearby) (herbig-haro object)
There are, of course, many clusters and nebulae actually within or adjacent to the Ecumene. Sector 593, the Grand River, is a sector slowly climbing up and down the nearest Torn Starway, the Bloody Stream (named for its abundance of ancient red dwarfs). Some of the closest proper star clusters to the Ecumene include the Great Shore, a tiny slice of a Dispersing Spherical Cluster that contains Sector 595; and the Chloricentric Sphere, which contains Sector 592. More dispersed clusters are more common- but are considerably less spectacular. Three large nebulae are contained within the Ecumene, but the largest is the Variegated Patina- an extremely colorful large starforming region home to Sector 591. Smaller clouds and jets are quite common, but rarely contain more than a few very young stars- if anything- and are therefore mostly useful for scientific study.
Note that the star clusters that exist on the map of the Ecumene may not actually reflect physical star clusters- see the map of the Sol region (on the same page as the other Prefecture 59 sectors), part of Sector 594, where very close-together groupings of stars exist... despite the fact that very few of those stars are actually near each other. This is due to axes which generally exist less in FTL- running theories suggest that black holes and other singularities produce a "normalizing" influence which causes most local FTL systems to treat three-dimensional space as two-dimensional, with an axis along the poles of the singularity being "flattened". It is unknown why this effect occurs... but it certainly makes interstellar navigation easier. Still- if you're flying a slowboat, remember to procure a three-dimensional map rather than a two-dimensional one. It could save your life.
The Ecumene