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The Correct Way to Design the Death Star, According to Science

Imagine the interior of the Death Star. What does it look like? Like a giant metal sphere with dozens of horizontal floors? That’s what we’ve all assumed for the last four decades, but that may not be correct. It all depends on whether or not the moon-sized battle station can generate its own gravity.

In my latest Because Science, I’m taking a viewer-submitted question to its logical conclusion. Twitter user Bulldogcomet15 asked whether or not the Death Star needs artificial gravity because of its size. After a few estimations, I calculated that the mega-weapon indeed does not have sufficient mass to create the kind of gravity humanoids like us are used to: 1g. Knowing this, there are a few ways to simulate gravity inside a spherical structure. The easiest is just to spin the whole thing like the space stations in The Martian and 2001: A Space Odyssey do. But how fast does the Death Star have to spin, and would that be feasible?

What I discovered during my exploration of questions ideas blew my mind—the Death Star is designed wrong! To find out what is exactly is wrong about our mental image of the station’s insides, and how to fix it, you’ll have to watch my latest episode above!


Check out my last video on how to hunt werewolves with science, subscribe to this playlist to stay current with the show, buy a Because Science shirt (you know why), and follow me on Twitter to give me a suggestion for the next episode!

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