List of Star Wars planets and moons facts for kids

The film set for the Lars Homestead on the desert planet Tatooine in Tunisia (pictured in 2010)

The Star Wars universe is filled with many different planets and moons. These places are super important to the stories. Some of these planets are even filmed in real-world locations! For example, the fancy city of Canto Bight from Star Wars: The Last Jedi was filmed in a real city called Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Since 2012, when The Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm, only the main movies and certain other stories are considered "canon." This means they are the official story. Some planets you hear about were first mentioned in older stories, now called Star Wars Legends, but they are still part of the official galaxy map today.

Exploring the Star Wars Galaxy

Map of the Star Wars galaxy

The Star Wars galaxy is huge and has many different areas. Think of it like a giant city with different neighborhoods. The most important and richest planets are in the middle, called the "Core Worlds." This is where the Galactic Republic started, with its capital planet, Coruscant.

Over time, the Republic grew and explored outwards. They colonized new systems further away, like Tatooine. These outer planets, known as the "Outer Rim," have lots of natural resources. But they don't have as many people or as much power as the Core Worlds. The galaxy is divided into bigger sections, then smaller ones, all the way down to single star systems and planets.

There are also smaller galaxies near the main Star Wars galaxy, like the Rishi Maze. These are mostly empty and not explored much.

The galaxy map is usually shown from above, with Coruscant at the very center. Coruscant is like the main reference point for everything in the galaxy. Even time is measured based on Coruscant's day and year!

Main Regions of the Galaxy

Here are the main areas of the galaxy, starting from the very center and moving outwards:

• Deep Core – This is the super bright, innermost part of the galaxy. It has a giant supermassive black hole that holds the galaxy together. It's packed with stars and clouds of gas, so it's hard to travel through and not many people live there.
• Core Worlds – These are powerful and wealthy planets with very long histories. Many of them helped start the Galactic Republic. Famous examples include Coruscant, Corellia, Alderaan, and Hosnian Prime.
• The Colonies – These were the first planets settled by the early Galactic Republic. Even though they are called "colonies," they are now almost as powerful as the Core Worlds.
• Inner Rim – This was the edge of the Galactic Republic for a long time before it expanded further.
• Expansion Region – This area is between the Inner Rim and Mid-Rim. It got its name because new waves of colonization started here.
• Mid-Rim – These planets are usually industrialized, meaning they have factories and industries. They are more developed than the frontier planets but not as important as the Core Worlds. Naboo and Kashyyyk are examples.
• Outer Rim – This is a huge area that includes all the planets up to the very edge of the galaxy. It's like the wild frontier, often used by the central government for its resources. Famous Outer Rim planets include Tatooine, Yavin, Hoth, Bespin, Endor, Geonosis, Utapau, Mustafar, and Kessel.
• Wild Space – These are star systems found beyond the Outer Rim. They are very spread out and haven't been fully mapped. The secret cloning planet Kamino is located in one of these areas.
• Unknown Regions – This is a large part of the galaxy that hasn't been explored much. It's home to the first Jedi temple on Ahch-To and the Chiss Ascendancy. After the Empire was defeated, its remaining forces went here and formed the First Order.
• Western Reaches – These are areas that were once controlled by the Republic but are on the edge of the Unknown Regions. They are similar to the Outer Rim in how developed they are. The desert planet Jakku is in the Western Reaches.

Special Galactic Areas

Besides these main regions, there are also some other important areas:

• Mandalorian Space – This area is in the Outer Rim, close to the Mid-Rim. The planet Mandalore was once the center of a powerful space empire, led by fierce warriors called the Mandalorians. They were very tough fighters and gave the Jedi a hard time. In the Clone Wars and Rebels TV shows, Mandalorians often fought among themselves or against the Empire. Later, the Empire destroyed much of Mandalorian space, forcing survivors to scatter across the galaxy.
• Hutt Space – This is a large area controlled by the Hutts, who are like powerful gangsters. They are so strong that neither the Republic nor the Empire ever tried to conquer them. However, the Hutts were too busy fighting among themselves to challenge the main government.

These galactic regions were even taught in a classroom in The Mandalorian TV series. A droid teacher listed them in order, showing how important this map is to the Star Wars universe.

Key Planets and Moons in Star Wars Canon

This section lists some of the most important planets and moons from the Star Wars films and other official stories.

Planets Like Those in Our Universe

An artist's idea of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, an exoplanet that is similar to the ice planet Hoth

Scientists have found many real planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets. In 2015, NASA said that many of these new planets are very similar to the planets in Star Wars!

For example, Kepler-452b is a rocky "super-Earth" planet that is like the city-planet Coruscant. Planets like Kepler-16b and Kepler-453b, which orbit two stars, probably look a lot like the desert world Tatooine. The hot, molten planets Kepler-10b and Kepler-78b are similar to the volcanic planet Mustafar. A cold, distant exoplanet called OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb is like the ice planet Hoth. And Kepler-22b, which scientists think is an ocean planet, is compared to the ocean planet Kamino. NASA also says there are real planets that remind them of Alderaan and Endor.

See also

• List of Star Wars filming locations
• Planets in science fiction