The full extent of the shield is evident from the fact that the shield needs to be dropped in order for a shuttle to land on the moon, not just to approach the Death Star.įurther, in the novelization, it is shown that when a ship crashes into this planetary shield the collision destroys the ship. Aboard Home One, during the briefing given to the pilots prior to the attack on the Death Star II, a holographic projection of the shield indicates that it does indeed reach out in a conical structure to surround the orbiting Death Star. The shield not only extends to the upper atmosphere of the moon, but all the way out into space to entirely encompass the Death Star II as well. A planetary shield generator is employed on the sanctuary moon of Endor, prior to the Battle of Endor. This establishes the range of the shield-net itself.

The shield was strong enough to resist fire from several Imperial Star Destroyers and a Super Star Destroyer for long enough to make a surface assault that could slip under the shield necessary, leading to the Battle of Hoth. In Star Wars V, the Rebel Alliance is able to utilize a 'theatre shield' to protect their base on Hoth from orbital bombardment. It certainly doesn't seem likely that the Empire designed their ultimate weapon with only 900% overkill against existing civilian targets. This will make the actual amount of energy absorbed lower. Since a second explosion is visible during the destruction, it is likely that the invisible portion struck later. However, Star Wars turbolasers seem to have a visible 'tracer' component, as well as an invisible portion. This may mean that, before giving out, the shield was able to dissipate 1E37 J of energy. This energy beam strikes the planetary shield, but the planet does not begin to sustain damage for another tenth of a second. The Death Star I fires its planet destroying superlaser at Alderaan, a beam with a calculated energy of 1E38 J. In perhaps the most spectacular demonstration of a planetary shield's power, the destruction of the planet Alderaan shows the 'breaking point' of a core-world's planetary shield.

Star wars orbital bombardment