Copernicus On The Science Of The Force Awakens Part 2

Copernicus on the Science of THE FORCE AWAKENS Part 2 Read the full article on AICN This is the second in a two-part series about the science of THE FORCE AWAKENS.  In this article I focus entirely on Starkiller Base.  Part 1 covers everything else.  It took me several viewings of THE FORCE AWAKENS, and some reading up on the internet, to figure out exactly what the hell is supposed to be going on with Starkiller Base.  That’s because the operation and storytelling behind it doesn’t make a lot of sense. The idea is that Starkiller Base is a planet that has been outfitted with some really boss technology that sucks either matter or energy (this is somewhat ambiguous) from a star, then stores it in the planet.  Then it shoots this beam of energy into hyperspace where it goes off and wipes out entire solar systems nearly instantaneously.  In the process, it can suck so much energy from its parent star, that it somehow extinguishes it (whether or not it eats the entire star is ambiguous).  Apparently, the whole planet can then go into hyperspace to find a new star.  There’s a lot here, so let’s break this into parts. HAVE PLANET-GUN, WILL TRAVEL At first I was very confused, because they never say in the film that Starkiller Base can move between stars like the Death Star could.  So why build this insane monstrosity, if you can only use it once or twice before the star it is orbiting gets snuffed out?  I mean, how often are you going to want to destroy *every* planet in another solar system? Finish the article on AICN