![Chott el Djerid - Lars homestead](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Chott_el_Djerid_-_Lars_homestead.jpg)
The
fictional universe of the ''
Star Wars'' franchise features multiple
planet
A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...
s and
moons
A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body (or sometimes another natural satellite). Natural satellites are often colloquially referred to as ''moons'' ...
. While only the feature films and selected other works are considered
canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western ca ...
to the franchise since the 2012 acquisition of
Lucasfilm by
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...
, some canon planets were first named or explored in works from the non-canon
''Star Wars'' expanded universe, now rebranded ''Star Wars Legends''.
In the
theatrical ''Star Wars'' films, many scenes set on these planets and moons were
filmed on location rather than on a
sound stage
A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a soundproof, large structure, building, or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or ...
. For example, the resort city of Canto Bight located on the planet Cantonica, seen in ''
Star Wars: The Last Jedi'' (2017), was filmed in
Dubrovnik, Croatia.
''Star Wars'' canon astrography
![Galaxymap p1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Galaxymap_p1.jpg)
The ''Star Wars'' galaxy contains several broad sub-regions. Their exact definitions fluctuated somewhat during the ''Legends'' continuity, but were later formally updated by the new canon continuity when Disney purchased Lucasfilm. The new canon map is broadly similar to the later versions of the ''Legends'' galactic map.
As a general rule, most of the galaxy's wealth, power, and population are concentrated near the middle of the galactic circle – the "Core Worlds". The first major interstellar powers in the core are stated to have risen many millennia ago, gradually coalescing into the early Galactic Republic, with its capital at
Coruscant
Coruscant () is an ecumenopolis planet in the fictional '' Star Wars'' universe. Its first appearance was onscreen in the 1997 Special Edition of ''Return of the Jedi'', but was first depicted and mentioned by name in Timothy Zahn's 1991 novel ' ...
. Waves of colonization (and conquest) by the Republic gradually spread outward from the Core, into the sparser systems at the galaxy's edge, such as Tatooine. Worlds of the Outer Rim are rich in raw resources but lack the population, infrastructure, or political power of the Core. Major galactic sub-regions are further divided into quadrants, sectors, etc., down to individual star systems and planets.
The galaxy has at least two
companion-satellite dwarf galaxies
A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of about 1000 up to several billion stars, as compared to the Milky Way's 200–400 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which closely orbits the Milky Way and contains over 30 billion stars, is so ...
, one of which is known as the Rishi Maze, but they are very lightly settled or explored.
The canon map depicts a top-down view of the galactic disk, with "north" as the side of the galactic center that Coruscant is located on. As the capital planet of the Republic and later the Empire, Coruscant is used as the reference point for galactic astronomy, set at XYZ coordinates 0-0-0. Standardized galactic time measurements are also based on Coruscant's local solar day and year.
According to the updated ''Visual Dictionary'' series made by Pablo Hidalgo for the Sequel Trilogy, these are the general regions of the galaxy spreading outward from the Core:
* Deep Core – the innermost brightly lit region of space, with a
supermassive black hole
A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical ob ...
at the
center which binds the galaxy together. Densely-packed with stars,
nebulae
A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming region ...
, and other anomalies, it is therefore thinly settled due to the resulting high radiation levels and lack of stable hyperspace routes.
* Core Worlds – powerful and wealthy planets with millennia-long histories, many of them founding members of the Galactic Republic. On-screen examples include Coruscant, Corellia, Alderaan, and Hosnian Prime.
* The Colonies – the first colonies founded by the nascent Galactic Republic in ancient times. The name is somewhat anachronistic, as they have grown nearly as powerful as the "Core Worlds" themselves, though their histories aren't quite as long or prestigious (i.e. comparable to how the United States or Canada could be called "the colonies" of Great Britain). Mentioned by name in ''
The Rise of Skywalker
''Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker'') is a 2019 American epic space opera film produced, , and directed by J. J. Abrams. Produced by Lucasfilm and Abrams' productio ...
''.
* Inner Rim – the original edge of the Galactic Republic, where expansion waves stopped for many generations.
* Expansion Region – nestled between the "Inner Rim" and the "Mid Rim", anachronistically named due to a new colonization wave starting again.
* Mid-Rim – Generally industrialized though not very important planets, but more developed than the true "frontier" in the Outer Rim. On-screen examples include Naboo and Kashyyyk.
* Outer Rim – a vast region including all of the last major star systems up to the galaxy's edge. As the last region that the Republic expanded into, it is relatively the least developed, a frontier more often than not exploited by the central galactic government for its resources. On-screen examples include Tatooine, Yavin, Hoth, Bespin, Endor, Geonosis, Utapau, Mustafar, and Kessel.
* Wild Space – star systems located beyond the Outer Rim – because a galaxy's "edge" is not a fixed border line, but a concentration of stars tapering off in frequency. Unlike the Outer Rim, these sparse few systems around the galaxy's circumference were never formally charted. More broadly, ''Attack of the Clones'' established that the Star Wars galaxy actually possesses at least three small satellite galaxies, never colonized and considered largely inhospitable. The secret cloner-world Kamino, however, is located in one of these minor galactic clusters beyond the Outer Rim.
* Unknown Regions – the new ''Canon'' map establishes that, due to the stability of hyperspace lanes, inhabited planets are weighted toward the "eastern"
quadrant of the galactic plane with the "western" one being mostly unexplored. These Unknown Regions are home to the first Jedi temple on Ahch-To and the Chiss Ascendancy, into which
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Grand Admiral Thrawn (full name: Mitth'raw'nuruodo) is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He is notable for appearing as the eponymous character in the ''Thrawn'' trilogy of novels (1991–1993) by Timothy Zahn. Thrawn is an ...
was born. The remnants of the Empire retreated here after their defeat at Endor, reforming into the First Order – as well as, secret even to the First Order, Darth Sidious' Sith forces reconstituting on Exegol.
* Western Reaches – the sectors once controlled by the Republic that border the Unknown Regions of the galactic "west". Essentially similar to the Outer Rim in terms of their history and economic development, the only difference being that instead of being located at the galaxy's physical edge, they are located at the edge of galactic exploration in the "western" side of the Republic. In ''The Force Awakens'', it is stated in dialogue that Jakku is in the Western Reaches.
Apart from these broad regions radiating out from the galactic core, there are also several major galactic sub-regions of note:
* Mandalorian space – technically located in the Outer Rim, but relatively close to the border with the Mid-Rim, near Kashyyyk, in the galactic "northeast". The planet Mandalore had its own regional space empire in ancient times, led by their
formidable warrior culture. The Mandalorians were the most difficult enemies the Jedi ever faced short of the Sith: they were not Force-wielders, but were a culture of regular humans who had honed themselves to possess the pinnacle of combat training, equipment, and battle tactics. During a series of long wars with the Republic, however, many centuries before the Clone Wars, the Jedi were eventually able to fight them into submission - though with heavy losses. In the ''
Star Wars: Clone Wars'' animated series, both the Republic and the Separatists compete for support from rival Mandalorian factions, and in the later ''
Star Wars: Rebels'' animated series, Mandalorians again divide into a proxy war between pro-Imperial and pro-Rebel forces. According to ''
The Mandalorian
''The Mandalorian'' is an American space Western television series created by Jon Favreau for the streaming service Disney+. It is the first live-action series in the ''Star Wars'' franchise, beginning five years after the events of '' Retur ...
'' TV series, this eventually resulted in the devastation of Mandalorian space by the Empire, with surviving enclaves scattering across the Outer Rim.
* Hutt Space – a fairly large swath of space along the "eastern"
quadrant of the galactic plane, loosely straddling the border between the Mid-Rim and Outer-Rim. The Hutts are a
kleptocratic
Kleptocracy (from Greek κλέπτης ''kléptēs'', "thief", κλέπτω ''kléptō'', "I steal", and -κρατία -''kratía'' from κράτος ''krátos'', "power, rule") is a government whose corrupt leaders (kleptocrats) use politica ...
Mafia state
In politics, a mafia state is a state system where the government is tied with organized crime to the degree when government officials, the police, and/or military became a part of the criminal enterprise. According to US diplomats, the expressio ...
, derided as "gangsters" composed of several rival clans. The Hutts' resources and power are formidable enough that both the Republic and the Empire never bothered to conquer them, while the Hutts were too divided by their own internal politics to seriously challenge the Republic (unlike the Mandalorians).
This official galactic astrography was later re-confirmed for the first time in on-screen, live-action dialogue in ''
The Mandalorian
''The Mandalorian'' is an American space Western television series created by Jon Favreau for the streaming service Disney+. It is the first live-action series in the ''Star Wars'' franchise, beginning five years after the events of '' Retur ...
''. In the second season's fourth episode, "The Siege", a classroom is briefly shown on a planet in the Outer Rim, in which a lesson on galactic astrography is being taught by a protocol droid. The teacher not only lists off each of these major regions from the Visual Dictionary, but lists them in the exact same order, from the Outer Rim to the Core:
:''"Who can name one of the five major trade routes in the galaxy? The Hydian Way
unsfrom the Outer Rim to as far away as the Core Worlds. However, there are several other regions within our galaxy. They are the Mid Rim, the Expansion Region, the Inner Rim, the Colonies, the Core, and the Deep Core."''
Forever Dreaming
''The Mandalorian'' episode 2.4 transcript
''Star Wars'' canon planets and moons
The following list names prominent planets and moons from the ''Star Wars'' films or other canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western ca ...
media.
''Star Wars Legends'' planets and moons
These are planets with multiple appearances in the ''Star Wars'' Expanded Universe, now rebranded as ''Star Wars Legends''. The accompanying works were declared non-canon by Lucasfilm in April 2014, following its acquisition by The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...
in October 2012.
Similarities to real-world planets
The discovery of exoplanets
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...
in the real-world universe gained pace in the early 21st century. In 2015, the US space agency NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
published an article which stated that many of the newly discovered astronomical bodies possessed scientifically confirmed properties that are similar to planets in the fictional ''Star Wars'' universe.
Kepler-452b, a rocky super-Earth
A super-Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth's, but substantially below those of the Solar System's ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, which are 14.5 and 17 times Earth's, respectively.
The term "super-Earth" refers only to ...
-type planet, is said to be similar to the ''Star Wars'' planet Coruscant
Coruscant () is an ecumenopolis planet in the fictional '' Star Wars'' universe. Its first appearance was onscreen in the 1997 Special Edition of ''Return of the Jedi'', but was first depicted and mentioned by name in Timothy Zahn's 1991 novel ' ...
. Likewise, the planets Kepler-16b
Kepler-16b (formally Kepler-16 (AB)-b) is an extrasolar planet. It is a Saturn-mass planet consisting of half gas and half rock and ice, and it orbits a binary star, Kepler-16, with a period of 229 days. " tis the first confirmed, unambiguous e ...
and Kepler-453b, planets discovered orbitting binary stars probably resemble the desert world Tatooine
Tatooine () is a fictional desert planet that appears in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. It is a beige-colored, desolate world orbiting a pair of binary stars, and inhabited by human settlers and a variety of other life forms. The planet was first ...
. The hot, molten worlds of Kepler-10b and Kepler-78b are comparable to the volcanic planet Mustafar. OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb
OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb (known sometimes as Hoth by NASA) is a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting OGLE-2005-BLG-390L, a star from Earth near the center of the Milky Way, making it one of the most distant planets known. On January 25, 2006, Probing Len ...
, a cold, remote exoplanet, is like the ice planet Hoth
Hoth is an ice planet in the '' Star Wars'' fictional universe. It first appeared in the 1980 film '' The Empire Strikes Back'' and has also been a setting in ''Star Wars'' books and video games.
Description
Hoth is the sixth planet of a remote ...
. Kepler-22b
Kepler-22b (also known by its Kepler object of interest designation KOI-087.01) is an exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the Sun-like star Kepler-22. It is located about from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus. It was discov ...
, thought by scientists to be an ocean planet
An ocean world, ocean planet, panthalassic planet, maritime world, water world or aquaplanet, is a type of planet that contains a substantial amount of water in form of oceans, either beneath the surface, as subsurface oceans, or on the surf ...
, is compared to the planet Kamino. According to NASA, there are also similarities to Alderaan and Endor Endor or Ein Dor may refer to:
Places
* Endor (village), from the Hebrew Bible, a Canaanite village where the Witch of Endor lived
* Indur, a Palestinian village depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
* Ein Dor, a Kibbutz in modern Israel
F ...
in the real-world universe.
Solar System
Two non-canonical works also feature the real-life Solar System
The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...
's planets. '' Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas'' (1993) contains a feature, presented as a clip from a gossip column, in which a pair of Duros Duros can refer to:
* Duros (''Star Wars''), an alien race in the ''Star Wars'' franchise.
* Duros (food), a crisp Mexican
Mexican may refer to:
Mexico and its culture
*Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North A ...
are abducted by humans and taken to "Urthha" (Earth), where they create havoc by misunderstanding terrestrial objects and food. In issue #19 of the comic series ''Star Wars Tales
''Star Wars Tales'' is a comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics, beginning on September 29, 1999, and completing its run on July 13, 2005. Each issue is 64 pages and features a few unrelated stories from various eras of the ''Star Wars'' ...
'' (2004), the story "Into the Great Unknown
''Into the Great Unknown'' is the fifth studio album by Swedish melodic hard rock band H.E.A.T. Released worldwide on 22 September 2017 by the label Gain (working with Sony Music) and produced by Tobias Lindell. The album has received praise f ...
" finds Han Solo
Han Solo is a fictional character in the '' Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. The character first appeared in the 1977 film '' Star Wars'' portrayed by Harrison Ford, who reprised his role in ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) an ...
and Chewbacca in the ''Millennium Falcon
The ''Millennium Falcon'' is a fictional starship in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Designed by Joe Johnston for the movie ''Star Wars'' (1977), it has subsequently appeared in ''The Star Wars Holiday Special'' (1978), ''The Empire Strikes Back' ...
'', fleeing the Imperial Navy. They jump to hyperspace
In science fiction, hyperspace (also known as nulspace, subspace, overspace, jumpspace and similar terms) is a concept relating to higher dimensions as well as parallel universes and a faster-than-light (FTL) method of interstellar travel. ...
without doing calculations and find themselves in the middle of our Solar System, overpassing Saturn, Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
, and Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
while decelerating and landing in Northern America
Northern America is the northernmost subregion of North America. The boundaries may be drawn slightly differently. In one definition, it lies directly north of Middle America (including the Caribbean and Central America).Gonzalez, Joseph. 2 ...
. Han is killed by Native Americans, and a mourning Chewbacca leaves the ''Falcon'' to live in the trees, where the natives believe him to be a sasquatch
Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forest of North America. Many dubious articles have been offered in attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot, including anecdotal claims of ...
. In an epilogue set 126 years later, archaeologist Dr. Jones and his sidekick Short Round, searching for the sasquatch, find the ''Falcon'' and Han's remains.
See also
* List of ''Star Wars'' filming locations
* Planets in science fiction
Planets in science fiction are fictional planets that appear in various media of the science fiction genre as story-settings or depicted locations.
Planet lists
For planets from specific fictional milieux, use the following lists:
Literature ...
References
Sources
*
Content in this article was copied fro
The galaxy
at the Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki, which is licensed under th
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Galaxy Building, from Alderaan to Utapau
at StarWars.com (official)
''Star Wars'' Canon: Just How Realistic Are the Single-Biome Planets?
at '' The Escapist''
*
Interactive map of ''Star Wars'' galaxy
{{Star Wars universe, state=collapsed
Planets
Star Wars
Lists of fictional locations
Fictional moons