Technically, the death star is just a massive lightsaber igniting for 2 seconds.

Many Bothans died to bring us this video.

The 900 km size estimate for the 2nd death star is a long standing myth; it's actually around 160 km I think according to lore. The 900 km figure was some fans judgement based on the hologram scene in ROTJ that showed the death star in orbit around the Endor moon; it was not supposed to be to scale.

Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed, the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force!

I'd like to think that the lieutenant that warned Tarkin walked out of the command room *then ran to the nearest hanger bay.*

fun fact, they say kyber crystals power the death star super lazer but in actuality it is powered by its reactor. the kybers do the same thing they do in a lightsaber, they focus and exponetialy increase the energy output. so they do power it to an extent but the initial energy does not come from the kybers themselves

The Death Star has primary exhaust ports on it's poles, the one used to destroy it was a secondary exhaust port, one of 19 similar ports spaced out across 1 hemisphere, and the only one of which could cause the chain reaction that destroyed the station. It was also ray-shielded, which means it could only be attacked by physical projectiles like proton torpedoes.

Actually, the death star instantly killing planets makes a lot of sense, but in order to understand why, we have to look at what they are doing. In pretty much all of the shots of the Death Star killing things, we see the laser is hitting the planet, then the planet explodes outward instantly. I think the important thing to rememeber is it's not the laser itself thats (that) explosive, but its actually hitting the core, causing the core to react and expand outwards, engulfing the planet in its own core, which actually makes a lot of sense. In Rogue, they only commense fire on Jedha with a "single reactor ignition" which tells me that it might be the same reaction, but targeted in a different way on a much smaller scale. Like dropping a nuke instead of killing the planet itself

...and to think, all I need to do to destroy it is hyperspace a drone at it. Thanks Disney. You really understand the lore.

The official numbers of Star Wars are different concerning the size: 120 km for the first Death Star and 160 km for the second one.

One correction: The vulnerability Galen Erso set up was *not* the exhaust port. Galen was in charge of the central reactor design, not minor structural details like that. What he did was deliberately introduce a point of instability into the reactor, such that it could be easily overloaded to induce a runaway chain-reaction, which would subsequently cause it to explode completely. That subtle flaw was all he dared to arrange personally, other than also getting the message about it to the right people. He could only hope that _someone_ would be able to figure out a way to take advantage of that weakness. When the rebellion got hold of the Death Star plans, they had limited time and means at their disposal, but were luckily able to find a direct pathway to the reactor from outside in the form of a small, overlooked, exhaust port. Some _other_ engineer had not bothered to completely protect the port from outside attack. Not an unreasonable decision, really, considering how unlikely it was that anyone would want, much less be able to, target such minor thing. Almost certainly that there were other vectors also available for overloading the reactor, but likely most of them would depend on being _inside_ the Death Star at the time. Only the exhaust port was exploitable through outside attack.

Fun fact: the Death Star’s design is based on Mimas, a moon of Saturn, it’s big crater resembles the station’s most powerful weapon “the super laser” The moon has even been given a funny nickname: “the death moon” Because of how close it looks like to the imperial station!

At the very end, we get to see all the components of the Death star, albeit as they fly off in all directions...

The second Death Star isn’t actually 900 km in diameter, that’s a misconception due to there being no curve when the Executor crashes

Back when in the theater- at first glance, I and my friends thought the "new" Death Star was just the remnants of the old one, that hadn't completely blown up before.

Ah, so that's how big they were compared to our moon. Thanks for that!

Rebels: we have hope (death star appears) Empire: say hello to my little friend

I really liked this video. I would like to see more in depth look at this showing how the different decks are arranged inside the Death Star and how the decks change orientation towards the outer layers of the Death Star. You have an interesting way of graphically displaying these objects.

When the Death Star 2 blew up, due to it's massive size supposedly there was so much debris that the Ewoks were all doomed when their planet was hit by the falling debris and shock wave. Similar to asteroid strikes killing a planet.

The thing i love about Star Wars is how science based allot of the show is. Usually they would just tell you "thats our planet killing space ball don't question it"

Second Death Star wasn't 900, no matter if the executor crash scene is taken as reference, it was not.

The Death Star was one of the most important sci-fi ideas in film history.

Dam..almost a hundred years later and I just learned the two Death Stars were different sizes

1:45 Hanger bay 327, that's were they store imperial coats.

WOW! That size comparison blew my mind. I mean I know DS 2 was big, but had no idea it was THAT hugantic! That's pretty much big enough to have it's own gravity and atmosphere; crazy!

Funny thing about the original Death Star, it didn't have different power settings. It was built to destroy planets. The second Death Star had different settings. That's why it could target Mon Calamari cruisers and blow them up.

Fun fact I've read about the Death Star, out of universe. The REAL reason for the trench? With the model they made, there was always a gap between the hemispheres, no matter what they did. The 2 halves refused to completely join, and there was always a gap. So they just decided to say that's intentional, and left it in.

The second Death Star is NOT that much bigger. That size is a myth based on the executor crash scene but the canon size is the same as the first

This video is very helpful for my project. Thanks !

Very interesting, thank you for putting this together. 🙏😁👍

Nicely done animation.

This was all designed and manufactured by Ikea. The original Death Star was never 100% completed because of a missing fastener.

your video is so helpful and inspiring!

Thanks for the video. I have acquired 30 million metric tons of durasteel already. I will put your video to great use.

This is very cool, well done

Very little-known fact: The Death Star, in its original imperial conception, was supposed to be very long andcylindrical, like a gun barrel, and they were going to call it "The Death Stick" ... but then the Empire realized that that name was already taken.

Thanks for this

I mean it sounds dumb to say, but I love how the DS is just a giant reactor with a gun strapped to it, with a space station built around it.

"After everything those Clone troopers did for our Republic and Empire, we're just going to discard them? Surely we can't-" Tarkin's honest reaction (the Death Star was completed early):

Good explanation.

The Death Star is amazing, you are awesome !!

The Death Star's real weakness is it was BUILT BY THE LOWEST BIDDER. he he he

I watched this to build a Death Star in Minecraft awesome job! 👍

"That's no moon, turn the ship around".

Brilliant.

Awesome..

what a wonderful video, if a bit short, more inside detail please, and can you please do one on death star 2, so we can see what differences there where between the two.

Excelente

You mentioned the hanger bay that the falcon was brought into. Making the observation of the death star having at least that many. Well I think its safe to say that it has 360 hanger bays. As in 306° on account of it is a sphere. You might want to mention it the next time you talk about that space station. Thank you. -E-

It also features a canteen that sells pastas, but still has the wet tray problem.

For the folks in the comments; the 900km diameter theory is because of the imperfections in the visual trick they used for the filming of their surfaces. The DS2, in fact, was officially 160 kilometers in diameter. Honestly, how are people STILL falling for that? It takes not ten seconds to go to a wiki and search the damn thing up. As for the kyber crystals, they were a focusing array, not a power source. The Death Star super laser is, in essence, an oversized composite lightsaber emitter designed to destroy planets. Also, I don't like the canon of intentional sabotage. Originally, one Bevel Lemelisk was given the job of actually building a functioning blueprint of the damn thing, because the guy who originally came up with the idea, Raith Sienar, was a political jockey and CEO for the company who made most of the GE's toys. Bevel was given the research material to get such a megastructure in working order. The vent was just a vent, and it requires SEVERAL leaps of logic for the damn 'weakness' to be exploited. Go watch this for a good explanation; kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l82Thdp4qbHZnKs.html Bevel was also tortured for his 'failure'. Extensively.

I’d like to see more info on the sublight and hyperdrive engines, specifically the exhaust nozzles. Like, were the nozzles peppered all around the equatorial trench, or did the DS have to rotate in order to go in a different direction? I haven’t seen/heard/read much regarding its locomotion. Actually, this video is the most I’ve seen, thanks to the cutaway view.

Pretty Cool Video .

Death Star: *surrounded by star destroyers* Death Star: *nervously sweats*

It looks so easy now!

Oh it's beautiful

When the fork someone jumped Death Star II from 160km to 900km? Its like people saying the Super Star Destroyer is now 17 km long instead of the original 7km. DS I = 120km, DS II = 160km, SSD = 7km, period.

Epcot Center's Spaceship Earth geodesic sphere would be close in size to a 1:18 scaled DS 1.

Or as Alyx Vance might say, "You can call it the 'Imperial Expeditionary Battle Planetoid'...if you really want to." 1:44 The number "327" has special symbolic significance in George Lucas's movies.

the first deathstar ist 160 km in diameter, and the second 200 km.... the Starkiller Base (Ilum) is 660 km. That are canon infos.

Sweet!

Woah.. so the death Star is actually just a large circular lightsaber 😬

They should have had Vadar guiding dish array into the Deathstar using the force, that would have been so cool!

How far from the hangar bay was the cell block where Leia was being held? Also how far did Ben have to travel to get to the tractor beam terminal?

Wasn't DSI 120km in diameter and DSII 160km?

1:13 Seeing the size of the 2nd one makes me wonder why they didnt just make 3 or 4 or maybe even 10 smaller death stars instead...

The equatoral trench is a bit larger than depicted in this 3D graphic, as in R1 we see the stern and engine assembly of an ISD MK-I ship inside a large hangar.

Atmosphere Containment Projector......and that's the benefit of being able to make it up as you go along.

Halfscreen listen *"Don't be too proud of this technological ''Informative'' Channel you've constructed. Your Expert ability to Inform us, is insignificant, next to the power of the Force!"™* ~Lord Noles~

Most prob didn't know this but there are several stages(Rogue one. showed one of those stages, Death star beam. Episode 4 was another stage.

Death Star 2 was functionally completed, potentially never intended to be a giant globe. It was designed to look bigger than first one and still look incomplete to lure rebel fleet into trap.

I always thought Death Star 1 was the size of Earth's moon, and Death Star 2 was 2x as large. But to be fair, this makes a lot more sense.

I would have liked to see where the trash compactors were situated and how they were purged of their refuse contents (and possibly explain how that damn Dianoga creature got into one and nearly drowned Luke).

Im just designing the superlaser interior for 3D printing. An oldschool AMT/Ertl scale model will be custom built R1-style with blinking warning lights...

Let’s make sure we engineer out that 2m exhaust port entrance to the reactor, and replace it with a Millennium Falcon-sized corridor.

I always thought the Trench ran around the equator. But now i know it ran along a meridian. Learn something new every day

Would love to see cut aways of the USS Enterprise. NX-01, Ncc1701, 1701-A, B, C, D E and J

3:04 Star Wars universe screaming for Health and Safety Inspector 😆

Confused- thermal exhaust port is located on the north pole of the diagram at 5:20- was it not the main equatorial trench Luke flew down then?

8 tributary beam shafts, firing field amplifier, targeting field generator, induction hyperphase generator?!?!?! WOW, who in the hell sits down and makes up all the names for this stuff??

I think the interior of a Death Star would be more like a planet, in concentric layers...

Why is the tractor beam assembly depicted as bigger than the super laser? I'd think the super laser would be the largest subsystem on the death star.

I have a question…if the superlaser is facing parallel or horizontally…while lookin at it from a space point of view why does it look like a huge crater to a human while standing on the surface

I like the idea of a Photon Torpedo that's a solid cone ramming down a shaft slightly bigger than it at 10x the speed of sound for 1/20th the Moon's radius - even if the exhaust was weaker than air at Mt Everest it'd have to be pounded into liquid towards the end. That goes to the idea "Vader did it" - because he didn't want the Emperor to have a weapon that might make him casually replaceable... Neat videos!

1:45 "Also, near the equator is docking bay 327, also known as hanger bay 327, was a docking bay aboard the death star." The Docking Bay known as 327 was a docking bay aboard the death star, but also known as hanger bay 327? no way

Death Star I was 120 km in diameter, Death Star II was 160 km in diameter.

And to think even if the torpedo in the exast port didn’t work a simple rewrite of the reactor tolerance system. was code in the central and secondary computer cores could of caused the same effect. Shure you would need to be a slicer, and be descised as a imperial tech and hack into it and upload a virus. Then re wire some of the shut down systems to make it seam like it worked but just shut some other system down.

it's funny it has the form of a moon outside but inside everyone is standing in an orientation from bottom to top like in any other non-spherical normal spaceship

The original Death Star design was conceived by Poggle The Lesser and the Seperatists Council.

6:13 Seconds before the Death Star explosion, it appears as if the operator pressed the "AZ-5" button. xD ... Oddly, Luke was "RED5" of the strike squadrom at the time.

The huge recoil after firing the planet destroyer laser will kill everyone in the deadstar

Well actually, according to cannon the first Death Star was 120 km in diameter, not 160 km. 160 km is the length of the 2nd Death Star according to cannon. The 900 km diameter myth is a misconception because there was no curvature when the executor crashed into the Death Star II (2).

Earlier Death Star super-laser designs were meant to use phased array retro-proto-turbo-encabulators

Nice work. But shouldn't the exhaust port be located somewhere along the equator-trench? Also (at least if you take Death Star II into concideration) the Emperor's tower is a pretty important structure (I know they ignored it for Rise of Skywalker, but you can see it very clearly in ROTJ (mirrors the look of the Jedi temple tower). And what about the hyperspace drive (if it are supposed to be able to jump?)

you forgot to mention how the deathstar is able to move from one place to another.

You forgot the amplification chambers, observation dome, and convergence centers.

Anyone got the canonical reference for why it’s stated the ROTH Death Star is bigger then the NH one? Just curious. Been a while since I watched ROTJ.

Did anyone else at the time think the second death star was the remains of the original one?

the rebels: this information is worth millions

Induction Hyper Phase Generator? "Jesus Morty, you cannot ad a sci-fi word to a car word and hope it means something!" - Rick