As iconic as the orbicular death - bringer is , the inner tinkerings of the Death Star still remain a great mystery . For example , if the Death Star suddenly materialized in the Solar System , how much energy would the watercraft require to pulverize the Earth into blooming gravel ?
A chemical group of natural philosophy scholarly person at the University of Leicester learn it upon themselves to divine the Death Star ’s energy requirements ( using many an admittedly radical Assumption of Mary ) . From the paper titled“That ’s No Moon ” :
This planet is going to be modelled after world with the elision that it is a solid planet . It is then potential to use the gravitational binding energy of the target satellite to judge the amount of energy required to be supply to the Death Star ’s optical maser beam so as to demolish it [ … ] The vigour required to put down the satellite in question is 2.25 ⨉ 10 ^ 32 J. However , the demolition of large planet such as Jupiter can need much large energy demands [ … ] we can gauge this vigor to be 2 ⨉ 10 ^ 36 J [ … ]

Since the Death Star outputs energy adequate to several primary - succession stars , even if the actual composition of Earth is used in equation , the value yielded is only a few rules of order of magnitudes big and the Death Star can still easy yield to output that energy due to its tremendous power source . However as mentioned above Jupiter require much greater energy demand which would put considerable melodic line on the Death Star . To ruin a planet like Jupiter it would plausibly have to deviate all remain index from all essential organization and biography sustenance , which is not necessarily possible .
I would n’t put it above the evil Empire to write out off the oxygen just to eke out that last joule of murder . When you ’re spending$15.6 septillion , a Luxembourg worth of Stormtroopers is but a bead in the bucket .
Death Star Costs $ 15.6 Septillion , 1.4 Trillion Times the US Debt

[ ViaMetafilterandThe Smithsonian ]
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