quote:

A voice announced over a hidden speaker that they had approached within antigrav range of Alderaan--approximately six planetary diameters. That was enough to accomplish what all of Vader's infernal devices had failed to.

-ANH (novelization)

quote: (post)

Originally posted by Galan007
The Death Star fired on Alderaan from "antigrav range"(approx. six planetary diameters away):


And per Star Wars Super Graphic, the diameter of Alderaan = 12,500km -- which means the Death Star was 75,000km from Alderaan when it fired. That said, the Death Star's beam takes about 2 seconds to hit Alderaan in the film. Given the distance between them, this equates to a 'beam-speed' of 37,500km/s... Or ~0.125c (ie. 1/8 light speed.)


tl;dr
If the Death Star were near the sun and fired at earth, the planet would be destroyed just over an hour later.



/nerdcalcs

quote:

Assuming that the rotation and inclination of the planet had been taken into account, the released blast of concentrated phantom energy would travel along a perfectly linear path, punching a small rip through hyperspace itself until it left the galaxy--or encountered something in its path that was of sufficient mass to intercept it [...] Traveling faster than anything ever generated by artificial means, through a torn portion of space-time whose properties were not fully understood, the concentrated glowing ball of energy lit the night sky above Republic City.

-TFA (novelization)

quote: (post)

Originally posted by One Big Mob
I'm still amazed that Starkiller base was powered soley by Galen Marek.