This page is an archive of a community-wide discussion. This page is no longer live. Further comments or questions on this topic should be made in a new Knowledge Bank page rather than here so that this page is preserved as a historic record. jSarek 11:39, February 9, 2012 (UTC)
Just for the sake of my curiosity, would it have been possible for the Death Star to simply shoot through the planet Yavin Prime and destroy Yavin 4? Seeing as how Yavin Prime is a Gas Giant type planet and there is theoretically no solid mass that comprises the planet. I understand for the sake of the story they did not. But I was just curious if it was plausible.--CT-1987 13:20, June 27, 2011 (UTC)
- Gas giants certainly do have solid mass. But in any event, depending on what mechanism the Superlaser operates under, it's possible that simply impacting the atmosphere of Yavin would activate its planet-destroying properties and the energy would be absorbed by the wrong planet. And then you're potentially left with a situation where the Death Star has to recharge for a second shot. The course of action Tarkin undertook was the most efficient option under the circumstances, and he wasn't in much of a hurry anyway. DD97Which bear is best? 13:41, June 27, 2011 (UTC)
- Everything is possible. Little is probable. Karohalva 17:11, June 27, 2011 (UTC)
I've heard a lot about this topic and personally I believe blowing up Yavin would probably have caused drastic climate change and other such doom on Yavin 4 to have sufficently destroyed the rebel base. Of course there are several reasons why just going for Yavin 4 would be the better choice but as far as the scientific nature of your question that's my view.
- It was also a movie with a nail-biting cliffhanger that had to give Luke enough time to blow up the Death Star. ;) -- Riffsyphon1024 07:38, July 6, 2011 (UTC)
- Also, destroying Yavin 4 via climate change caused by blowing up Yavin would be a slow process. The goal was to completely eliminate the Rebellion and its leaders in one easy strike. If you blew up the Yavin gas giant, there would probably still be ample time to evacuate the moon base. Taral, Dark Lord of the Sith -Just shy, not antisocial: You can talk to me!- 14:27, July 6, 2011 (UTC)
Yavin 4 was a gas giant and some of the substances may have interfered with the superlaser. Also, as we see in ROTJ (with Palpatine using the death star to patiently destroy the rebel fleet one by one) the imperials loves to mess with the rebels' heads in cruel ways, so giving them that nail-biting thirty minutes to live AND THEN destroying yavin 4 would give Moff Tarkin a good laugh.