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I was just wondering, is it plausible that the asteroid belt we saw in Genosis, was actually a "superlaser mining operation" ?

Think about it, we do know that the Genosians have access to superlasers, presumably capable of breaking apart a planet the same way as the Death Star. Imperial propganda for the Death Star was that it was a "mining machine".The Genosians might had utilised a relatively low powered superlaser to had break apart a satellite moon and strip-mined the debris for raw materials.

This would also help explain how there were tunnels/caves and so forth in the asteroids.

Or it could be a planetary ring like any other planetary ring. The asteroids were cratered. If they had been recently slagged by a superlaser and resolidified then there would be far fewer craters and a lot more smooth surface. And strung out parts, and so on.

Rogue 9 wrote:Or it could be a planetary ring like any other planetary ring. The asteroids were cratered. If they had been recently slagged by a superlaser and resolidified then there would be far fewer craters and a lot more smooth surface. And strung out parts, and so on.

I said a "low-powered" shot. Maybe the physics won't really work out, but dump a low powered shot that's just high enough to slowly break up the moon, as opposed to the Aldeeraan explosion.

Furthermore, the close density of the asteroids would had meant a hugeload of cratering right there and then.

In my opinion the extreme density of that asteroid ring and the fact that most of those rocks appeared to have a high iron component suggest that the asteroid may have been artificially created by the Geonosians to have raw materials for their heavy industry.

That belt was too thick and close to the planet to be natural. You can't have asteroids that size inside the Roche limit. They probably replenish it every so often to facilitate orbial construction.

I think it says what the origin of the ring is in the Inside the Worlds book, though I don't have it with me right now.

CaptainChewbacca wrote:That belt was too thick and close to the planet to be natural. You can't have asteroids that size inside the Roche limit. They probably replenish it every so often to facilitate orbial construction.

Hell, you can't have that thick and active a ring anywhere for very long.

I think it was said to be for mining purposes.

It was created by the destruction of one of Geonosis' moons by asteroid collision, IIRC.

If the Genosians blew up thier moon, that would cause some extreme gravity spasms on their world I'd think.

From page 26 of Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Attack of the Clones

"The red, outer rim planet of Geonosis is ringed by asteroids which were created by the decimation of a local moonlet by a two-kilometer wide comet. The planet surface is scared from falling meteors and episodic radiation storms, which have caused several mass extinctions. The semi-insectoid Geonosians-the planet's higher life-forms-were consequently driven underground, where they inhabit hives and manufacture battle driod's."

Okay.

Real Life Astronomers predict the destruction of Neptune's moon Triton in a few million years time. This will probably cause Neptune to have a brightish ring system for a fairly long time

Rogue 9 wrote:Or it could be a planetary ring like any other planetary ring. The asteroids were cratered. If they had been recently slagged by a superlaser and resolidified then there would be far fewer craters and a lot more smooth surface. And strung out parts, and so on.

The genosian ring is not like any other planetary ring. The size of the ring fragments is too large. In real life ring fragments are quickly broken down by collison. IIRC the largest fragments in Saturns ring are no larger than a meter across. So the Genosian rings must be very young since they have large multi kilometer fragments.

PainRack wrote:This would also help explain how there were tunnels/caves and so forth in the asteroids.

Perhaps they were burrowed through by a giant space worm, like the one in ESB. Has there ever been any additional information given about that worm, anyway?

Space slug, actually.

Teradoc wrote:If the Genosians blew up thier moon, that would cause some extreme gravity spasms on their world I'd think.

Thats probably true. It would have affected their current gravitational situation.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Space slug, actually.

The space slug is an interesting creature. I wonder how it survives in vacuam of space without any oxygen or protection from radiation.

evilcat4000 wrote:

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Space slug, actually.

The space slug is an interesting creature. I wonder how it survives in vacuam of space without any oxygen or protection from radiation.

Dr. Saxton has a nice little blurb about it an his site. http://www.theforce.net/swtc/zoology/spaceslug.html