The
Star Wars galaxy contains several broad sub-regions. Their exact definitions fluctuated somewhat during the
Legends continuity, but were later formally updated by the new canon continuity when Disney purchased Lucasfilm. The new canon map is broadly similar to the later versions of the
Legends galactic map. As a general rule, most of the galaxy's wealth, power, and population are concentrated near the middle of the galactic circle – the "Core Worlds". The first major interstellar powers in the core are stated to have risen many millennia ago, gradually coalescing into the early
Galactic Republic, with its capital at
Coruscant. Waves of colonization (and conquest) by the Republic gradually spread outward from the Core, into the sparser systems at the galaxy's edge, such as Tatooine. Worlds of the Outer Rim are rich in raw resources but lack the population, infrastructure, or political power of the Core. Major galactic sub-regions are further divided into quadrants, sectors, etc., down to individual star systems and planets. The galaxy has at least two
companion-satellite dwarf galaxies, one of which is known as the Rishi Maze, but they are very lightly settled or explored. The canon map depicts a top-down view of the galactic disk, with "north" as the side of the galactic center that
Coruscant is located on. As the capital planet of the Republic and later the Empire,
Coruscant is used as the reference point for galactic astronomy, set at XYZ coordinates 0-0-0. Standardized galactic time measurements are also based on
Coruscant's local solar day and year. According to the updated
Visual Dictionary series made by Pablo Hidalgo for the Sequel Trilogy, these are the general regions of the galaxy spreading outward from the Core: •
Deep Core – the innermost brightly lit region of space, with a
supermassive black hole at the
center which binds the galaxy together. Densely packed with
stars,
nebulae, and other anomalies, it is therefore thinly settled due to the resulting high radiation levels and lack of stable hyperspace routes. •
Core Worlds – powerful and wealthy planets with millennia-long histories, many of them founding members of the Galactic Republic. On-screen examples include
Coruscant,
Alderaan, Chandrila, Corellia, and Hosnian Prime. •
The Colonies – the first colonies founded by the nascent Galactic Republic in ancient times. The name is somewhat anachronistic, as they have grown nearly as powerful as the "Core Worlds" themselves, though their histories aren't quite as long or prestigious (i.e. comparable to how the
United States or
Canada could be called "the colonies" of
Great Britain). Mentioned by name in
The Rise of Skywalker. •
Inner Rim – the original edge of the Galactic Republic, where expansion waves stopped for many generations. •
Expansion Region – nestled between the "Inner Rim" and the "Mid Rim", anachronistically named due to a new colonization wave starting again. •
Mid-Rim – Generally industrialized though not very important planets, but more developed than the true "frontier" in the Outer Rim. On-screen examples include Naboo and Kashyyyk. •
Outer Rim – a vast region including all of the last major star systems up to the galaxy's edge. As the last region that the Republic expanded into, it is relatively the least developed, a frontier more often than not exploited by the central galactic government for its resources. On-screen examples include
Tatooine,
Yavin,
Hoth, Bespin,
Endor, Geonosis,
Utapau,
Mustafar, and Kessel. •
Wild Space – star systems located beyond the Outer Rim – because a galaxy's "edge" is not a fixed border line, but a concentration of stars tapering off in frequency. Unlike the Outer Rim, these sparse few systems around the galaxy's circumference were never formally charted. More broadly,
Attack of the Clones established that the
Star Wars galaxy actually possesses at least three small satellite galaxies, never colonized and considered largely inhospitable. The secret cloner-world Kamino, however, is located in one of these minor galactic clusters beyond the Outer Rim. •
Unknown Regions – the new
Canon map establishes that, due to the stability of hyperspace lanes, inhabited planets are weighted toward the "eastern"
quadrant of the galactic plane with the "western" one being mostly unexplored. These Unknown Regions are home to the first Jedi temple on Ahch-To, the planet Illum which would become
Starkiller Base, and the Chiss Ascendancy, into which
Grand Admiral Thrawn was born. The remnants of the Empire retreated here after their defeat at Endor, reforming into the
First Order – as well as, secret even to the First Order,
Darth Sidious' Sith forces reconstituting on Exegol. •
Western Reaches – the sectors once controlled by the Republic that border the Unknown Regions of the galactic "west". Essentially similar to the Outer Rim in terms of their history and economic development, the only difference being that instead of being located at the galaxy's physical edge, they are located at the edge of galactic exploration in the "western" side of the Republic. In
The Force Awakens, it is stated in dialogue that Jakku is in the Western Reaches. Apart from these broad regions radiating out from the galactic core, there are also several major galactic sub-regions of note: •
Mandalorian space – technically located in the Outer Rim, but relatively close to the border with the Mid-Rim, near Kashyyyk, in the galactic "northeast". The planet Mandalore had its own regional space empire in ancient times, led by their
formidable warrior culture. The
Mandalorians were the most difficult enemies the
Jedi ever faced short of the
Sith: they were not Force-wielders, but were a culture of regular humans who had honed themselves to possess the pinnacle of combat training, equipment, and battle tactics. During a series of long wars with the Republic, however, many centuries before the
Clone Wars, the Jedi were eventually able to fight them into submission – though with heavy losses. In the
Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series, both the Republic and the Separatists compete for support from rival Mandalorian factions, and in the later
Star Wars: Rebels animated series, Mandalorians again divide into a proxy war between pro-Imperial and pro-Rebel forces. According to
The Mandalorian TV series, this eventually resulted in the devastation of Mandalorian space by the Empire, with surviving enclaves scattering across the Outer Rim. •
Hutt Space – a fairly large swath of space along the "eastern"
quadrant of the galactic plane, loosely straddling the border between the Mid-Rim and Outer-Rim. The
Hutts are a
kleptocratic Mafia state, derided as "gangsters" composed of several rival clans. The Hutts' resources and power are formidable enough that both the Republic and the Empire never bothered to conquer them, while the Hutts were too divided by their own internal politics to seriously challenge the Republic (unlike the Mandalorians). This official galactic astrography was later re-confirmed for the first time in on-screen, live-action dialogue in
The Mandalorian. In the second season's fourth episode, "The Siege", a classroom is briefly shown on a planet in the Outer Rim, in which a lesson on galactic astrography is being taught by a protocol droid. The teacher not only lists off each of these major regions from the Visual Dictionary, but lists them in the exact same order, from the Outer Rim to the Core: :
"Who can name one of the five major trade routes in the galaxy? The Hydian Way [runs] from the Outer Rim to as far away as the Core Worlds. However, there are several other regions within our galaxy. They are the Mid Rim, the Expansion Region, the Inner Rim, the Colonies, the Core, and the Deep Core." ==
Star Wars canon planets and moons ==