Read This: Researchers are beautifully charting the entire Star Wars universe

Even fans who are well familiar with the Star Wars theatrical films may find their eyes glazing over at the mere mention of the Expanded Universe. That term is generally used to encompass the voluminous Star Wars fiction created outside of the seven canonical films in a variety of media: novels, mainly, but also comic books, video games, toys, and made-for-television projects. A new article by George Dvorsky in Gizmodo explains “how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly huge [this universe] really is.” In fact, according to the article, an international team of researchers based in Switzerland have been poring through hundreds of pages of Wookieepedia data and using computer-generated graphs to keep track of all the myriad characters and intertwining timelines. The results are stunning. A color-coded chart showing the connections between 7,500-plus Star Wars characters, for instance, ends up looking almost like a Jackson Pollock painting, except done in neon paint on a black velvet canvas: