Other uses of the termДЄ few astronomers sometimes use the term 'Death Star' to describe Nemesis, a hypothetical star postulated in 1984 to be responsible for gravitationally forcing comets and asteroids from the Oort cloud toward Earth. In the Disney attraction, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, guests can travel inside an uncompleted Death Star during one of the randomized ride sequences. There is a broader range of figures for the second Death Star's diameter, ranging from 160 to 900 kilometers.

Various sources state the first Death Star has a diameter approximately 161 kilometers. It is also protected by 10,000 turbolaser batteries, 2,600 ion cannons, and at least 768 tractor beam projectors.

Its hangars contain assault shuttles, blastboats, Strike cruisers, land vehicles, support ships, and 7,293 TIE fighters. The first Death Star is depicted in various sources of having a crew of 265,675, as well as 52,276 gunners, 607,360 troops, 30,984 stormtroopers, 42,782 ship support staff, and 180,216 pilots and support crew. A Death Star variation appears in Kevin J. Numerous LucasArts titles recreate the movies' attacks on the Death Stars, and the Death Star itself is a controllable weapon in the Rebellion and Empire at War strategy game. Steve Perry's novel Shadows of the Empire describes a mission that leads to the Rebels learning of the second Death Star's existence, and that mission is playable in LucasArts' X-Wing Alliance combat flight simulator. The first level of LucasArts' Dark Forces gives the player a supporting role in Leia's mission, while a mission in Battlefront II tasks the player with acting as a stormtrooper or Darth Vader in an attempt to recover the plans and capture Leia. Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy introduces the Maw Cluster of black holes that protect a laboratory where the Death Star prototype was built (consisting of the super structure, power core, and Super Laser.) National Public Radio's A New Hope adaptation portrays Leia ( Ann Sachs) and Bail Organa's ( Stephen Elliott) discovery of the Death Star's existence and Leia's mission to steal the space station's schematics. The first Death Star under construction acts as the final stage in the video game, The Force Unleashed. In LucasArts' Star Wars: Battlefront II, the player participates in a mission to secure crystals used in the Death Star's superlaser. The first Death Star's construction is the subject of Michael Reaves and Steve Perry's novel Death Star. Expanded UniverseД®mperor Palpatine ( Ian McDiarmid), left, and Darth Vader watch the construction of the first Death Star in Revenge of the Sith.Д«oth Death Stars appear throughout the Star Wars Expanded Universe. The Death Star explosions featured in the special edition of A New Hope and in Return of the Jedi are rendered with a Praxis effect, wherein a flat ring of matter erupts from the explosion. The first Death Star also appears in the Star Wars prequel trilogy: its schematics are visible in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and the end of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith shows the Death Star early in its construction. Skywalker escapes with Vader's body moments before the Rebels destroy the station. In the film's climax, Vader throws Palpatine down the station's reactor core, killing him, and is mortally wounded in the process.

Emperor Palpatine ( Ian McDiarmid) and Darth Vader ( David Prowse/ James Earl Jones) send the Rebels false information that the station's weapons systems are not operational in order to lure them into a trap, and bring Skywalker on board to turn him to the dark side of the Force. In Return of the Jedi, set four years later, the Empire is building a new Death Star it is half-finished throughout the film. Later, Luke Skywalker ( Mark Hamill) boards the station with his friends and rescues her in the film's climactic battle scene, he uses his power in the Force to help him destroy the station. Tarkin orders the Death Star to destroy Leia's home world of Alderaan in an attempt to pressure her into giving him the location of the secret Rebel base she gives them a (false) location, but Tarkin has the planet destroyed anyway. The film opens with Leia Organa ( Carrie Fisher) transporting the station's schematics to the Rebel Alliance to aid them in destroying the Death Star. Commanded by Grand Moff Tarkin ( Peter Cushing), it is the Galactic Empire's 'ultimate weapon', a space station capable of destroying a planet with one shot of its superlaser. The original Death Star first appears in its completed form in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The second Death Star under construction in Return of the Jedi Films

Death star firing sound