# So, why didn't the Death Star just blow up Yavin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 18, 2011, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709 "2011-09-18T12:22:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![diku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@diku](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diku)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/1 "2011-09-18T12:22:20Z")
Seriously? As soon as the guy says 30 minutes to rebel base, Tarkin should say “Wait, let’s back up and jut blow up the big GIANT planet in front of the moon.”. I think that would’ve been quicker. Watching my blu rays too early on a Sunday. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/2 "2011-09-18T12:30:37Z")
I don’t know. How long does it take to recharge the Death Star BFG? (Incidentally - how does the Death Star get from place to place, anyway? It doesn’t seem to have any engines.) ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/3 "2011-09-18T12:51:19Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I don’t know. How long does it take to recharge the Death Star BFG? 24 hours, which is why they didn’t do it. The Death Star 2 recharged much faster. > [@Alessan](#): > > (Incidentally - how does the Death Star get from place to place, anyway? It doesn’t seem to have any engines.) Hyperdrives for travel between stars. I don’t know how it traveled STL, given that Star Wars ships normally have really obvious engines. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/4 "2011-09-18T12:51:47Z")
Well, there’s planets and then there’s gas giants. Based on the graphics, it looks like Yavin might be approximately the size of Jupiter or Saturn, while Yavin 4 is Earthlike. I can totally buy that a BFG that could blow up the Earth would just create an extra Red Spot if you fired it at Jupiter. ---
**Author:** ![Scougs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scougs/32/3158_2.png) [@Scougs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scougs)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/5 "2011-09-18T12:52:00Z")
I’ve seen this one frequently fan-wanked away. There are normally two answers: 1. Yavin is a gas giant, and the Death Star’s weapon doesn’t work on gas giants, or the resultant explosion would take out the Death Star 2. The weapon has a recharge cycle longer than the time it would take to clear the planet I prefer option 1. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/6 "2011-09-18T13:23:56Z")
What was their hurry? As far as they knew, the rebels didn’t have anything that could touch a Death Star. The best they could do was launch a mildly annoying swarm of fighters. Although I guess another question would be, “Why didn’t the Death Star come out of hyperspace in a better position to blow the moon into dust? Or just pop into hyperspace for a couple of milliseconds. Who was piloting that thing?” ---
**Author:** ![diku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@diku](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diku)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/7 "2011-09-18T13:26:44Z")
I don’t think they need to recharge. What would Yavin exploding do to one of it’s moons? No way a base on a moon survives that explosion. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/8 "2011-09-18T13:39:49Z")
I don’t think it’s much of a fanwank to just guess that the Death Star can blow up a small planet but not a gas giant. ---
**Author:** ![davidw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@davidw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidw)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/9 "2011-09-18T13:42:23Z")
No real need to fan-wank it away. They arrogantly considered themselves unbeatable, so they felt no need to hurry, and they paid the price for their arrogance. A pretty common military mistake. People rarely take the most logical course in a situation. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/10 "2011-09-18T13:51:21Z")
> [@Scougs](#): > > I’ve seen this one frequently fan-wanked away. There are normally two answers: Personally I would be thinking maintenance. Anything involving moving a metric shitload of power like that is going to have many many components, cooling systems, etc, etc. Fewer shots = less wear and tear. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/11 "2011-09-18T14:22:22Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > What was their hurry? As far as they knew, the rebels didn’t have anything that could touch a Death Star. The best they could do was launch a mildly annoying swarm of fighters. > > … And as any fool knows, a small, one-man fighter isn’t any threat. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/12 "2011-09-18T14:52:18Z")
Has somebody been watching the Star Wars “[How it should have ended](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzoeEdW-EDQ)” cartoon?" ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/13 "2011-09-18T15:36:23Z")
Pride. In the game of planetary sharp shooting, Yavin is a broad side of a barn, while it’s moon - comparatively - is much more in womp rat territory. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/14 "2011-09-18T15:50:30Z")
I imagine that an explosion big enough to blow up Yavin would blow up both Endor and the Death star. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/15 "2011-09-18T17:07:03Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > Personally I would be thinking maintenance. > > Anything involving moving a metric shitload of power like that is going to have many many components, cooling systems, etc, etc. Fewer shots = less wear and tear. Which is why the military always favours conservative solutions that will result in an easier job for the maintainers over immediately practical and militarily justified overkill. Wait a tick… ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/16 "2011-09-18T17:09:31Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > Personally I would be thinking maintenance. > > Anything involving moving a metric shitload of power like that is going to have many many components, cooling systems, etc, etc. Fewer shots = less wear and tear. That would also explain why they didn’t shoot the escape pod when there were no life forms on board. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/17 "2011-09-18T17:15:40Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > I imagine that an explosion big enough to blow up Yavin would blow up both Endor and the Death star. Wait. We are talking “A New Hope” here, aren’t we, and not “Return of the Jedi?” Endor is light years away from Yavin. The rebels in “A New Hope” are based on Yavin’s fourth moon. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/18 "2011-09-18T17:20:28Z")
I’ll go with the gas giant thing. Assuming they built the Death Star to be able to destroy inhabited planets there would be no reason to make it powerful enough to disrupt a gas giant. Also, we don’t have a direct movie canon description of how long recharge takes. As for the Death Star II, it fired a lot of shots, but those can’t have been full power blasts. I would have to assume that they turned the superlaser down to minimum setting to one-shot those Mon Calamari cruisers. ---
**Author:** ![diku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@diku](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diku)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/19 "2011-09-18T17:23:52Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Wait. We are talking “A New Hope” here, aren’t we, and not “Return of the Jedi?” Endor is light years away from Yavin. The rebels in “A New Hope” are based on Yavin’s fourth moon. Yeah, I’m talking about Yavin and the fourth moon. They’re like 20 feet apart. If Yavin blows up bad things are going to happen to that moon. Hell, if it’s a gas giant, shoot through it! ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709/20 "2011-09-18T17:33:12Z")
> [@diku](#): > > Yeah, I’m talking about Yavin and the fourth moon. They’re like 20 feet apart. If Yavin blows up bad things are going to happen to that moon. Hell, if it’s a gas giant, shoot through it! I don’t think it’s out of bounds to assume that the gas is dense enough to occult the beam, or cause it to do whatever superscience magic it does on a terrestrial-planet sized chunk of the gas giant. Another thing I just thought of, the beam at full strength, might cost the equivalent of a trillion dollars to fire. Maybe Tarkin wanted to come in under budget. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-didnt-the-death-star-just-blow-up-yavin/596709.md?page=2)