Planets

Tatooine is a desert planet in a binary star system. It once had large oceans full of marine based life and a world-spanning jungle, but this biosphere was destroyed when the myopic Rakata razed the planet, drying up its riverbeds and boiling away its oceans.

Tatooine has two stars, as it is in a binary star system. This shot from A New Hope remains one of the most famous scenes of the entire saga.

Tatooine’s G-type and K-type twin stars (Tatoo I & Tatoo II) heat its surface, making water and shade hard to come by. The planet's indigenous lifeforms—such as the Womp rat, bantha, Sarlacc, and Krayt Dragon—are well-adapted to its arid climate, but human settlers often become moisture farmers and live in subterranean dwellings in order to survive. The planet's lack of resources, brutal heat, and decentralized population have made governing the planet nearly impossible.

The planet fell into the clutches of the Hutts, a clan of vile gangsters. Since Tatooine was beyond the reach of the Galactic Republic, the Hutts presided over the lawless planet with little outside interference. When the Galactic Empire subsumed the Old Republic, the new regime established only a token presence on Tatooine, which left Jabba the Hutt’s reign unchallenged. Jabba remained the assumed ruler of Tatooine until his death in the Battle of Carkoon.