--- title: Science in Pax Abyssi canonical_url: https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Pax_Abyssi_Wiki:Science_in_Pax_Abyssi markdown_url: https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Pax_Abyssi_Wiki:Science_in_Pax_Abyssi.md type: wiki-page namespace: Pax Abyssi Wiki revision_id: 317 revision_view: stable last_updated: 2026-09-27 license: CC BY-SA 4.0 license_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ summary: "How this wiki handles science: the five labels that say what kind of claim a page makes, the sources it accepts, how numbers and dates are given, and how mistakes are corrected." categories: - Policy - Reference aliases: - Science policy - Editorial policy - Science status - Science status labels - Observed - Model - Sim - Speculative - Fiction - Corrections policy - Citation policy --- # Science in Pax Abyssi > Source: https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Pax_Abyssi_Wiki:Science_in_Pax_Abyssi > > Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Text by Pax Abyssi Wiki contributors; history at https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Pax_Abyssi_Wiki:Science_in_Pax_Abyssi/history > > Revision 317, 27 September 2026 This page sets out how the Pax Abyssi wiki handles science: how each page says what kind of claim it is making, which sources it accepts, how numbers and dates are written, and how mistakes are put right. It applies to every page about the game's universe and to every editor. The wiki does two jobs at once. It is the encyclopaedia of the game, and it is a reference on the astrophysics the game is built from: stars, planets, orbits, black holes, the Galaxy. The science is the part of Pax Abyssi we are proudest of, so it is held to a published standard. A reader should always be able to tell what has been measured, what has been inferred, what the simulation approximates, and what has been made up, and should be able to check where each claim comes from. ## The five labels Every page carries a science-status banner with one or more of these labels. | Label | What it means | Examples | | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Observed** | Measured, by a named instrument or survey, with a date | Mercury's relativistic perihelion advance of 43 arcseconds per century; the mass of [Sagittarius A\*](https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Sagittarius_A*.md) from the orbits of nearby stars | | **Model** | Mainstream theory or inference that has not been measured directly | The interior of Uranus; the edges of the [habitable zone](https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Habitable_zone.md) | | **Sim** | Pax Abyssi's own approximation, parameterisation or invented category, physically motivated but not a class the scientific literature uses | The [Colony and Habitat Viability Indices](https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Colony_and_Habitat_Viability_Indices.md); named gas giant subtypes such as "Methane-Jade" | | **Speculative** | Allowed by known physics, with no confirmed example | Carbon planets; superhabitable worlds; warp metrics | | **Fiction** | True only inside the game's setting | The [stardrive](https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Stardrive.md); the factions and their history | A page can carry more than one label, and a section can carry its own. A page about a real star is Observed, while its "In Pax Abyssi" box, which says how the game draws that star, is Sim. The label follows the claim: a fictional world orbiting a real star is Fiction, and the star is still Observed. ## Sources and citations - **Cite what is not common knowledge.** Every factual paragraph that a curious non-specialist could not check in a general encyclopaedia carries at least one numbered citation. The reference list is generated from the page's data, so every citation has a full entry. - **Prefer primary sources.** In order: peer-reviewed papers, with their DOI; the pages of space agencies and observatories (NASA, JPL, ESA, ESO); catalogues and the papers that define them (Gaia, Hipparcos, the HYG database, the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue). Preprints on arXiv are acceptable for recent results and are cited as preprints. News stories and press releases can support a date or an announcement, not a number. - **Check before citing.** An editor cites only a source they have found and checked says what the page says. A citation that cannot be verified is removed, together with the claim that depended on it. Inventing a reference is the most serious error an editor can make here. - **Game files are not science sources.** What the simulation does is stated in the "In Pax Abyssi" sections from the game's own data and design documents. Those documents are never cited as evidence for how the universe works. - **Credit data.** Pages that reproduce catalogue values credit the catalogue. The game's star catalogue is built on the HYG database (David Nash, astronexus), which is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and on distances from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission; see [Star catalogue](https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Star_catalogue.md). ## Numbers and dates - **Units.** SI or standard astronomical units first, with a familiar comparison where it helps: Earth masses, Jupiter radii, astronomical units, light years. Every number carries its unit. - **Real objects get real values.** The infobox of a real planet, star or black hole gives the measured values from the literature, with their sources. It never shows values the simulation generated. Pages about the simulation's own classes give the simulation's ranges and say that they are the simulation's. - **Moving facts are dated.** Moon counts, records such as "most massive known", and new results from telescopes change, sometimes several times a year. Such sentences say "as of" a date. - **Disagreements are shown.** Where good measurements disagree, the page gives both values with their sources, and the "In Pax Abyssi" box says which one the game uses. The mass of the black hole in Cygnus X-1 is an example. ## When the game and the science disagree The simulation is built from the scientific literature, but it is software, and software has bugs and simplifications. Where the game does something different from the published science, **the page states the science**, and the "In Pax Abyssi" box says what the game does. Known differences are reported to the developers and tracked until they are fixed. The wiki is never edited to make the science agree with the game. Some differences are deliberate design choices, and the "In Pax Abyssi" box describes them as such, in plain words. Claims about what the game does carry a status: in the game, in development, or planned. Worlds the simulation generates are described as "scored as potentially habitable", never as "habitable", because no one has been there to check. ## Images Every figure caption says what kind of image it is: an **observation**, an **artist's concept**, a **sim render** (a picture made by the game) or a **diagram**. Each carries its credit and licence. NASA images are in the public domain; ESA/Webb, ESA/Hubble and ESO images are used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 with the credit exactly as the agency gives it. Other ESA images are used only when the individual image carries an open licence. Renders from the game are never presented as observations, and images from other games are never used. ## Corrections - **Anyone can flag a mistake** on the page's talk page. An editor who has a source can fix it directly. - **Wrong science is fixed in place.** An error is corrected in the text, and is never left standing with a note beside it. The edit summary names the source that settles the point. - **Substantive corrections are logged.** When a number changes or a claim is withdrawn, the change is recorded with its date on the [Corrections log](https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Corrections_log.md), so readers who relied on the old version can find out. - **Superseded results are updated.** When a new measurement replaces an old one, the page takes the new value and its date. The old value stays only where its history matters to the story. - **Errors in the game are reported, and the page stays right.** If an editor finds that the simulation has a number wrong, the page keeps the correct number and the difference goes to the developers. ## Who writes the wiki The Pax Abyssi team and the community edit this wiki, and the same rules bind everyone. Edits from new accounts wait for review before readers see them, and every revision is kept in full with its author and summary. The launch pages were written from the project's research and checked against the sources they cite before publication. The writing follows the site's house style: plain, specific English with British spelling; every technical term defined when it first appears; the reasoning shown along with the result. If a sentence would sound at home in an advertisement, it is rewritten. ## See also - [Star system generation](https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Star_system_generation.md), how the simulation turns a catalogue star into a planetary system - [Star catalogue](https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Star_catalogue.md) - [Corrections log](https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Corrections_log.md) Categories: [Policy](https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Category:Policy.md), [Reference](https://paxabyssi.com/wiki/Category:Reference.md)