Death Star Physics

[Beor]

Okay, I know that this is Star Wars we're talking about here, but still. I was having a converstaion with one of my buddies here about gravity, and what not, and the converstion ended up passing into the realm of Star Wars, and whether or not the Death Star would have gravity or not. We started arguing it, and I know it would have to, because all mass creates or whatever a little bit of gravity, and the Death Star is massive enough that I would imagine it would put a big enough dent in the fabric of space to have a substanial gravitational field. Now, I know that in Star Wars on the Death Star, there seems to be a definite traditional "down", as if the core or whatever pulls objects towards the southern end of the space station, rather than just relying on or amplifying the gravity already there that would pull objects towards the core. Anyway, there is a lot to be discussed and debated, if anyone is interested. If this thread has already been posted in some shape or form, I apologize, but it seemed like a matter worthy of discussion.

[Earniel]

Judging by the scenes in the Death Star it definitely has artificial gravity but I never thought much about how it was acchieved. I believe TB has got a thread about creating artificial gravity somewhere in this forum.

[Valandil]

Beor is right that gravity is associated with mass - it's an inherent property of mass. So - the Death Star would have whatever gravitational field would be associated with any object of the same mass.

Let's don't confuse that with volume though. Even if it was as large as some moons, it was not solid throughout. It was a essentially a ship - so it was hollow. I doubt it had near the mass of a planetary body of the same diameter.

On the inside, a gravitational field would be very helpful. I think we can safely put that in the category of "artificial gravity" - some technology to supplement whatever natural gravity the Death Star itself would have. There may have even been sections where this was not applied - so that there was a near weightless state, and you could "float" around (this might be helpful in some service areas??).

[Farimir Captain of Gondor]

Originally Posted by Valandil

Beor is right that gravity is associated with mass - it's an inherent property of mass. So - the Death Star would have whatever gravitational field would be associated with any object of the same mass.

Let's don't confuse that with volume though. Even if it was as large as some moons, it was not solid throughout. It was a essentially a ship - so it was hollow. I doubt it had near the mass of a planetary body of the same diameter.

So if an object of smaller size and consisted of less mass floated by the Death Star it wouldn't be pulled into it?

[Valandil]

It depends on how close it passed, what velocity (both speed and direction) the two objects were moving, relative to one another - and the total mass of each of the two objects.

The gravitational attraction is actually the attraction of two masses to one another. You experience gravity because of how your mass interacts with the mass of the earth. There's a Newtonian equation, I think...

In short though - yes, a passing object could be pulled into (or into orbit around) the Death Star. However - this is something they would have anticipated as happening all the time - so the DS was likely equipped with some kind of deflectors to repulse such objects away. I don't think they would want the thing to be constantly pelted with space dust and so forth. Especially when it's purpose was to MAKE planetary fragments!

[Beor]

Exactly. Einstein has some pretty good illustrations as to a sort of easy way to see how gravity is. He paints space almost like a sheet stretched taut, and a massive object, say a planet or a star, would be like a marble on the sheet, it would create an indent that smaller particles would fall into. For instance, a bowling ball, if placed in the middle of the sheet, would create a very large distortion in the sheet, and if one were to roll a marble past it, the marble would incline towards the bowling ball and eventually hit it. Now, we dont fly into the sun, because all the planets give off their own gravity, due to their having mass. So, at the same time the sun pulls us in, the other planets are pulling us out, mainly Jupiter, if I remember correctly. That, and I believe there is some bit of centrufugal motion in there too.

I understand that the Death Star's gravity would be low, due, like Val said, to the fact that it is indeed a ship, but the gravity is there. Anyone ever read into the String Theory at all?