Kerbol System

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Orbits of planets and dwarf planets
All celestial bodies orbiting Kerbol with the sizes to scale
Comparison of the radii

The Kerbol System is the planetary system in which Kerbal Space Program takes place. It has Kerbol as the central body which is orbited by 5 planets and 2 dwarf planets. Only Kerbin and Laythe have an oxygen atmosphere and only Kerbin hosts life.

With the outermost dwarf planet Eeloo it reaches up to 113 549 713 200 m (about 113.5 Gm or 0.76 AU) out into space. Compared to our Solar System it is a very small system, as Earth's periapsis (or more specific perihelion) is about 147 Gm (or 0.98 AU) and thus outside of Eeloo's orbit.

It is difficult to determine if or where the Kerbol System has an edge. Kerbol itself has a non relativistic escape velocity, so it is possible to escape Kerbol. But it is not actually possible to escape Kerbol's gravitational pull since the sphere of influence is infinite. Although real-world gravity for any body technically expands into infinity, it does so only for Kerbol in KSP, so it's unclear if this property can be used to determine where the edge is.

Graphical comparison of the main celestial bodies in the Kerbol System (sizes to scale)

System in KSP1

TinyKerbol.pngKerbol
TinyMoho.pngMoho
TinyEve.pngEve TinyGilly.pngGilly
TinyKerbin.pngKerbin TinyMun.pngMun TinyMinmus.pngMinmus
TinyDuna.pngDuna TinyIke.pngIke
TinyDres.pngDres
TinyJool.pngJool TinyLaythe.pngLaythe TinyVall.pngVall TinyTylo.pngTylo TinyBop.pngBop TinyPol.pngPol
TinyEeloo.pngEeloo
(Sizes and distances not to scale)

System in KSP2

Main celestial bodies in the Kerbol System (sizes to scale)

Relation to the Solar System

Kerbol system Solar system
Kerbol Sun
Moho Mercury
Eve Venus
Kerbin Earth
Duna Mars
Dres Ceres
Jool Jupiter
Eeloo Pluto

Planet from the Kerbol System are defined from a few characteristics:

Characteristic How the value was chosen
gravity at sea level hand-picked, followed by a conversion from single to double precision (e.g. gravity on Eve is 1.70000004768372g instead of 1.7g)
radius hand-picked, loosely a tenth the radius of its solar counterpart for Moho, Eve, Kerbin, Duna and Jool
rotational period hand-picked or tidally locked, except Kerbin (21599.91201454015) and Duna (65517.859375)
orbit semi-major axis an eleventh the one from its solar counterpart, except for Eeloo, computed in single precision floating point arithmetic
eccentricity hand-picked, close to solar one for Moho, Jool and Eeloo
mean anomaly at epoch hand-picked (radians), often 3.14
inclination hand-picked (degrees), close to solar one for Moho and Eve
longitude of ascending node hand-picked (degrees)
argument of periapsis hand-picked (degrees)

See also