Fewer sights could be more terrifying than seeing a moon-sized spaceship gently appearing over the horizon before charging up a laser capable of destroying the entire planet you’re standing on.

The Death Star stands tall among all military weapons fact and fiction in both its sheer size and its destructive power. We saw the spherical super-weapon annihilate Jeddha City, decimate the Imperial Base on Scariff and eviscerate the planet of Alderaan. If it hadn’t been for a convenient, domino-effect, whole-system-goes-down exhaust port, the galaxy may have had no choice but to bow down at the might of the Death Star

After it’s appearance (and then subsequent disappearance) in the 1977 original film, Star Wars fans had to wait 39 years to see more of the awesome space station at work, but a few lesser known facts about the Death Star have surfaced in that time…