Star Wars: 10 Things Everyone Forgets About Tatooine
For an insignificant sandy world, Tatooine became extremely important in Star Wars history.
Even though Luke Skywalker once referred to the planet as the furthest place from the bright center of the universe, the remote world of Tatooine was a surprisingly busy and well travelled place. The desert planet was the birthplace of Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader, and the hiding place of his son, the aforementioned Luke. Needless to say, both men went on to make significant changes to the galaxy.
Thanks to two droids and the information that they hold, the presence of the Empire was increased dramatically while they searched for the duo and any co-conspirators. The Empire had to work with the local Hutt, Jabba Desilijic Tiure, while a Rebel cell led by Saponza battled the rogues. The presence of these villains on the planet was significantly decreased and diminished to almost nil with the fall of the Empire.
After the Battle on Endor and the death of Jabba the Hutt, there was an enormous power vacuum on Tatooine. Former bounty hunter Boba Fett returned seemingly from the dead to take over Jabba’s former territory. With the assistance of his second in command Fennec Shand, and the help of Mandalorian Din Djarin, Fett organized the cities of Mos Espa and Freetown against the Pyke Syndicate and the remaining Hutt Clan. His efforts ushered in a new era for Tatooine.
10. Real World Allegories
When creating the world of Star Wars, George Lucas often drew from the world around him and, as celestial bodies go, it turns out that planets like Tatooine aren’t as uncommon as people might believe. In the earlier drafts of the script, the name of the planet that the droids land on was constantly in flux. At one point, it was Aquilae, and later Utapau. While they were scouting locations, Lucas came across a small city in Tunisia called Tataouine in French. George chose the name Tatooine for his desert planet, and two of Tatooine's moons Ghomrassen and Chenini are named after real villages in Tunisia
On September 15, 2011, a planet was discovered with two suns. Called Kepler-16b by NASA, the planet is 200 light years away from Earth in the Constellation Cygnus. It should be visible to amateur astronomers according to researchers. On January 11, 2012, two more gas giants were discovered orbiting two suns. Kepler-34b obits each sun every 289 days and is as far away from its two suns as our Earth is from ours. Kepler-34b is located 4900 light years from Earth.
The other gas giant is Kepler-35b, which orbits each star every 131 days at less than 60% of the distance of the space between the Earth and our sun. The suns of Kepler-35b are smaller than our sun and are located 5400 light years away from Earth.