Hoth asteroid field

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Homeworld:
  Hoth

• Terrain:
  Asteroids

• 

From the Movies

Located in the Hoth system is a chaotic asteroid field filled with dangerous swarms of colliding rocks. Stray bodies from the field get caught in Hoth's gravity well, and enter the ice planet's atmosphere, becoming meteorites.

If the threat of being crushed by massive asteroids is not enough to deter the most foolhardy pilot, the asteroid field is also home to dangerous lifeforms. At least one unbelievably huge space slug has made a home out of one of the larger asteroids. Furthermore, the field is infested by mynocks, leathery-winged energy parasites that attach themselves to passing ships and then chew on the power cables.

The odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are approximately 3,720 to 1. Han Solo, never being too concerned with the odds, recklessly plunged the Millennium Falcon into the field to escape Imperial pursuit after the Battle of Hoth.

From the Expanded Universe

Occupying the outermost orbit in the Hoth system is a chaotic asteroid belt, the result of two rocky planets colliding eons ago. The impact shattered both worlds, scattering a wide storm of asteroids throughout the system. To this day, the remains of the worlds continue to smash together, pulverizing each other into so much dust. The fragments that make up the thickest region of the belt vary in size from tiny granules to immense planetoids with trace atmospheres.

Spacer legend has it that a pirate named Clabburn used space slugs as guardbeasts for his roving asteroid headquarters. Other legends say that these slugs grew to incredible size in the zero-gravity of the asteroid field.

Behind the Scenes

To create the asteroids, Industrial Light & Magic used polystyrene pieces surfaced with plaster. Each asteroid had to be filmed separately against bluescreen, and later composited optically. At least one asteroid is, in fact, a potato filmed using a motion control camera.

To fill the asteroid sequence with as much debris as possible, ILM model-makers crafted an "asteroid box," which contained dozens of small rocks suspended on rotating wires.

The gigantic asteroid that Han Solo pilots his starship into was a combination model (of at least the crater and the surface surrounding it) as well as matte paintings.