The Endor Holocaust

During the Battle of Endor in Star Wars Episode 6: Return of the Jedi, the Rebels destroy the second Death Star in orbit around the forest moon of Endor. The destruction of the battlestation kills the remaining Imperial forces on board and delivers an enormous blow to the Empire due to the loss of such a gigantic weapon and all aboard, the defeat of the Imperial fleet nearby and the death of the evil Emperor Palpatine. And our heroes are celebrating at the end all dandy and fine now that Darth Vader has been redeemed. Add the Special Edition and you get celebrations on numerous worlds across the galaxy against the Imperials. Sounds fine, right?



Consider that the Death Star II is around the size of our moon. When the station erupts in a gigantic fireball, numerous parts of its frame and inner parts are ejected outward into space at enormous speeds. Also consider that in real life, when a space station that is vastly smaller than the Death Star II is destroyed, it creates a cloud of debris that begins to circle the Earth due to being drawn in by the planet's gravity. If the debris collides with satellites, it can cause great damage to them.

Imagine all that debris, much of which could be country sized falling down onto the Forest Moon. The gravity field would pull on the wreckage so that it would be shifted towards the Moon. The gas giant Endor is directly behind it (the Forest Moon) and thus cannot pull enough of the debris away. The Rebel Fleet is too small to create a combined shield to deflect even half the stuff. And the Imperials, even if they were helping the Rebels deflect it and had all of their ships, would not be anywhere near enough to protect the moon.

The resulting impacts would practically annililate the biosphere of the planet. Enormous clouds of dust would be thrown up into the air, blocking out sunlight for many miles. This would be in turn supplemented by the forest fires caused by burning wreckage strikes. The native population of the planet, the Ewoks, would have to be evacuated off planet if they were to have any chance of survivng this catastrophe. It is doubtful that they would survive- the Rebels are strapped for ships and could evacuate only a mild sliver of the Ewok natives.

Thus the great victory at Endor would come at a great price- the holocaust of nearly an entire population.