From magma planets like Mustafar to Sarlacc, the science behind Star Wars

From magma planets like Mustafar to Sarlacc, the science behind Star Wars

A long time ago, in a distant distant galaxy… how many times have we read this writing? Although the universe created by George Lucas is highly science fiction, many times what we see is also reflected in the world, or rather Universe, real.
We have already explained on these pages that Star Wars technology is slowly catching on "nowadays", today we will explain the inspiration behind certain settings, choices and technologies.

The planets of the George Lucas universe: Mustafar, Hoth and Tatooine

Fans will surely know the planet Mustafar, the site of the iconic battle between Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. The world in question is mostly covered in boiling lava, e such planets have already been found in the "real world". Their existence could be caused by several factors: it could be a still young planet, a planet that had a great collision with another celestial object or a planet with an orbit very close to its star.
The most likely option of their creation is the latter, this is because in most cases the lava planets orbit very close to their star. Gravity causes distortions that generate an internal tidal heating capable of melting the rocks in magma, which can then rise to the surface. However, even the intense radiation from the nearby star could melt the surface crust directly into lava. A planet that could look like Mustafar is CoRoT-7 b: computer simulations suggest that the temperature varies from about 2000 degrees Celsius on the side exposed to the sun to about -200 degrees in the side in the shade.

Another iconic place in the saga is Hoth, the main base of the Rebel Alliance, which we have seen in it The Empire strikes again. Obviously, this type of world also exists and falls into the category of "frozen planets". These are comparable to larger versions of some of the moons in the solar system, such as Europe; the surface of an icy planet can be composed of water, methane, ammonia, carbon dioxide and other volatile substances.
We have a candidate this time too, his name is OGLE-2005-BLG-390L b, since the surface temperature could be around -220 ° C.

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Star Wars fans will surely know Tatooine, the home planet of the Skywalker family. The celestial body in question is located within a binary system, in which two stars orbit. So there are two sunsets on the planet. Science fiction? Not too much. A recent analysis has shown that double sunsets can be just as common in our galaxy as the "single" we know on Earth.
A good part of the stars in our galaxy are binary. Over two thirds of the most massive stars, in fact, live with a partner, while "only" one third of the little red dwarfs are in pairs. So if half of the Sun-like stars in the galaxy are paired, could those systems accommodate Earth-like planets? Now we know it could be possible. However, looking for such places is not easy: the complicated orbital dance of the stars makes it difficult to "observe" the faint whispers of influence from the planets; locating a planet around a single star is difficult enough.

Artificial intelligence

The way AI is used on Star Wars isn't that far from reality. C-3PO, the iconic and witty robot, speaks over 6,000 languages ​​fluently. Google, for now, however, manages to translate over 100 languages. Of course, speaking is different from simple translation, from this point of view it will still take some time. However, researchers are betting that Google's AI will become much smarter in the coming years: in 2014, it was estimated that it had an IQ around 26.5, but in 2016 it had almost doubled its "intelligence", reaching an IQ of 47.3. Furthermore, today's artificial intelligence is based on Machine Learning or Deep Learning, of the methods by which the machine "learns" and "trains", correcting errors in order to succeed over time, after a large amount of data analyzed and on a statistical basis, to carry out a specific activity independently.
Also from the point of view of the "humanoid robots" we are making progress: recently a robot named Sophia obtained citizenship in Saudi Arabia earlier this year. The automaton is capable of conversing without pre-programmed responses and it is a potential first step towards robotic helpers for humans.

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Another similar example is given by Fedor, a Russian humanoid robot that replicates the movements of an operator and performs a limited series (for now) of actions independently. The robotic humanoid can perform several automatic movements, but also imitate the movements of a human being (to do this, a human user must first wear sensors to guide him).
This last particular function can be used to execute dangerous tasks, both in space and on Earth. The humanoid robot also visited the International Space Station, where it was tested by astronauts. His stay was short, but in the future he could also be used for space missions, reducing the risk for cosmonauts to a minimum.

Sarlacc in the real world

Sarlacc is a creature that fans have encountered on Tatooine. The stomach of this being is capable of slowly dissolving a prey in nutrients using it a process that can last thousands of years. Despite being very "imaginative", there are creatures in nature that find correspondences with this being, such as the lion ant. In their larval stage, these ants have a large head, spiny jaws and a bristly body about half a centimeter long.
Moving backwards, the lion ant draws a circular pattern, constantly rotating inwards, digging deeper and deeper, until creating a steep and conical pit in the sand and burying itself at the base of it. All that remains visible are long, curved jaws that remain open waiting for prey.
When an unfortunate ant arrives on the edge of the pit, the sand collapses and falls into the trap. The ant, just like the unfortunate Lando Calrissian, discovers that he cannot get out of the pit. The sides are inclined so as to crumble when the victim tries to crawl out. In the rare event that the prey manages to escape, the ant throws sand against it, triggering an avalanche that causes the victim to fall into its jaws.

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Once the prey is subdued, the lion ant injects a paralyzing poison and digestive acids into the victim, eating all its vital juices. All the juices he has extracted from the prey remain in the body of the ant and, since he has no method to expel the waste produced, he will have to wait for his pupal stage – the inactive stage between larva and winged insect – to eliminate them. This means that the lion ant must retain all its waste throughout its larval life: three years. Not quite the duration of that of Sarlacc, but it is frighteningly approaching. We are fortunate that its size is reduced to a few centimeters.


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