E.T and the size of the Star Wars Galaxy

[Lucky]

I was looking through Cracked.com for a laugh or two, and i came across this.

In this scene from the Phantom Menace, we see members of E.T.'s species (the Grebelps) as part of the Galactic Senate on Coruscant.

In this scene from E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, when E.T. sees a child dressed in a Yoda costume he starts yelling "home, home" and tries to follow the child.

According to the tangline for the movie, E.T. is 3 million light-years from his home planet. This would place E.T.'s supposed homeworld of Brodo Asogi (in the Star Wars universe) in a galaxy roughly as "close" as our currect neighbor spiral galaxy, Andromeda.

Coupled with the other information can we determan the actual size of the Star wars Galaxy?

"Vader stared at the motley array of stars displayed on the conference-room map while Tarkin and Admiral Motti conferred nearby. Interestingly, the first use of the most powerful destructive machine ever constructed had seemingly had no influence at all on that map, which in itself represented only a tiny fraction of this section of one modest-sized galaxy.

The Maps from Attack of The Clones
http://www.st-v-sw.net/STSWkamino.html

[Praeothmin]

Well, at 3 million LY distance are found many smaller dwarf galaxies as well, all in the vicinity of Andromeda, so the SW galaxy could be one of those, and since the novel says it's a "modest-sized" galaxy, I would tend to favor those smaller ones...

[Tyralak]

Well, at 3 million LY distance are found many smaller dwarf galaxies as well, all in the vicinity of Andromeda, so the SW galaxy could be one of those, and since the novel says it's a "modest-sized" galaxy, I would tend to favor those smaller ones...

I've heard a lot of speculation that the galaxy in question is Triangulum. (M33)

[Praeothmin]

Where from?

[Mike DiCenso]

The problem with all this is that the SW Galaxy has at least two satellite galaxies. While it is suspected that the Triangulum Galaxy has possible satellite galaxies, there is no confirmation of ones like those seen orbiting the GFFA.
-Mike

[Praeothmin]

Plus, Triangulum isn't a modest-sized Galaxy at 50 000 LY in diameter...

[Lucky]

Plus, Triangulum isn't a modest-sized Galaxy at 50 000 LY in diameter...

Modest does not necessarily mean small though.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Plus, Triangulum isn't a modest-sized Galaxy at 50 000 LY in diameter...

Modest does not necessarily mean small though.

Not what your gf said.

[Praeothmin]

Modest does not necessarily mean small though.

Not this again...

Ok, I'll bite: What could "Modest-sized" mean in the context it was used, if not that the SW Galaxy is small?
A blushing Galaxy with size adequacy issues?

[Lucky]

Modest does not necessarily mean small though.

Not this again...

Ok, I'll bite: What could "Modest-sized" mean in the context it was used, if not that the SW Galaxy is small?
A blushing Galaxy with size adequacy issues?

As far as I can tell something of modest size simply can't be what would be considered large.

modest |ˈmädəst|
adjective
1 unassuming or moderate in the estimation of one's abilities or achievements : he was a very modest man, refusing to take any credit for the enterprise.

2 (of an amount, rate, or level of something) relatively moderate, limited, or small : drink modest amounts of alcohol | employment growth was relatively modest.
• (of a place in which one lives, eats, or stays) not excessively large, elaborate, or expensive : we had bought a modest house.

3 (of a woman) dressing or behaving so as to avoid impropriety or indecency, esp. to avoid attracting sexual attention.
• (of clothing) not revealing or emphasizing the figure : modest dress means that hemlines must be below the knee.

modest
adjective

1 she was modest about her poetry self-effacing, self-deprecating, humble, unpretentious, unassuming, unostentatious; shy, bashful, self-conscious, diffident, reserved, reticent, coy. antonym conceited, boastful.

2 modest success moderate, fair, limited, tolerable, passable, adequate, satisfactory, acceptable, unexceptional. antonym great, runaway.

3 a modest house small, ordinary, simple, plain, humble, inexpensive, unostentatious, unpretentious. antonym grandiose, grand.

4 her modest dress decorous, decent, seemly, demure, proper. antonym flamboyant.

I'd think that a modest sized galaxy could be average in size?

[Enterprise E]

I would say that modest could mean average in size, to maybe the lower end of average. If the SW galaxy is described as being modest in size, I would guess that it is not as large as Milky Way, but I wouldn't put it at the size of one of the dwarf galaxies that orbits Triangulum. My definition would be a ballpark of about 30,000-50,000 light years. After all, if I remember correctly, the SW galaxy is a spiral galaxy, so I would guess that it is larger than any of the dwarf galaxies.

[Praeothmin]

In these definitions, when related to size, please notice this word (highlight mine):

2 (of an amount, rate, or level of something) relatively moderate, limited, or small : drink modest amounts of alcohol | employment growth was relatively modest.

3 a modest house small, ordinary, simple, plain, humble, inexpensive, unostentatious, unpretentious. antonym grandiose, grand.

So modest, in relation to size, seems to tend towards small, rather than average...

And Dwarf SpiralGalaxies, although rare, do exist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_spiral_galaxy

Anyway, 30 000 I could accept, even if it's really pushing it, considering Tatooine and Geonosis are less than a Parsec away, and Sullust and Endor are less than 2000 LY away (at most), and that all SW maps place Endor and Sullust between 1/5th and 1/10th of the Galaxy's diameter away from each other...

[Lucky]

In these definitions, when related to size, please notice this word (highlight mine):

2 (of an amount, rate, or level of something) relatively moderate, limited, or small : drink modest amounts of alcohol | employment growth was relatively modest.

3 a modest house small, ordinary, simple, plain, humble, inexpensive, unostentatious, unpretentious. antonym grandiose, grand.

So modest, in relation to size, seems to tend towards small, rather than average...

And Dwarf SpiralGalaxies, although rare, do exist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_spiral_galaxy

Anyway, 30 000 I could accept, even if it's really pushing it, considering Tatooine and Geonosis are less than a Parsec away, and Sullust and Endor are less than 2000 LY away (at most), and that all SW maps place Endor and Sullust between 1/5th and 1/10th of the Galaxy's diameter away from each other...

Just to be clear, I'm not arguing for a size, but just that as you have quoted, modest can mean PLAIN and ORDINARY as well as SMALL.

Modest rules out a large galaxy like the Milkyway, but one could argue it rules out the smallest galaxies for similar reasons.

[2046]

Let's just cut to the chase. "Modest-sized" means it is on the small side, as opposed to semantic gamesmanship that would mean it was "plain-sized", whatever that means.

However, no one is going to agree precisely what the statement of unlargeness means. After all, if I tell you that I've got a modest-sized manhood, you're going to run off and guffaw at my petite member and discuss its nanoscopic proportions. But if I tell you YOU have a modest-sized manhood, you're going to interpret that to mean that when NASA sends space probes to find the end of your orbital tether, it just won't go quite as far for you as it might for others. (And not many others, either.)

This isn't an accusation, it's just a touch of fairly normal human behavior.

In any case, figures tending toward, say, 10,000-50,000 light years seem plausible from such an example. 70,000 or more certainly seems a severe push.

However, if a survey of distant galaxies should find that the average galaxy size were, say, 200,000 light-years (which is very implausible, I'd think), then certainly the modest sizing could equal that of the Milky Way's 100,000 light years or so. But unless such a revised average is shown to exist, I don't see any good reason to diverge from the natural meaning of the phrase "modest-sized".

Bear in mind, however, that I may be revising my guesstimate upward somewhat, since "Supply Lines" refers to a 6500 light year distance from a certain Outer Rim place to the nearest fleet, which may suggest a minor increase in both the estimated size of the Republic and, as corollary, the size of the galaxy itself. Research is in progress on this point.

[theta_pinch]

According to NASA most galaxies in our local group are about one tenth the size of the milky way. The milky way is 100,000 light years across. One tenth of 100,000 is 10,000 so most galaxies are around 10,000 to 15000 lightyears. Since the star wars galaxy is a modest sized galaxy it's probably between 12000 to 8,000 light years.