Reactor bulb

The reactor bulb was a large, spherical gas intake device located at the bottom of Cloud City, an airborne Tibanna gas mining colony in the atmosphere of the Outer Rim gas giant, Bespin. Used as part of the city's gas mining operation, tractor beams converging below the bulb worked together to create an energy funnel that mined gas from Bespin's lower atmosphere and transported it up to the bulb, where it was forced through an intake on the underside. From there the gas traveled up the reactor stalk and into several reactor shafts where it was filtered through processing vanes.

Behind the scenes
A reactor bulb first appeared unnamed in the second Star Wars film, Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, released in 1980. The device was first identified as a reactor bulb in the Legends reference book Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy, released in 2004, with the name being made canon in the 2016 reference book Star Wars: Complete Locations, the re-issue of 2005's Star Wars: Complete Locations.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back