Hoth/Legends

In the fictional universe of Star Wars, Hoth is the sixth planet of a remote system. It is a world covered in snow and ice, with numerous moons, and pelted by meteorites from a nearby asteroid belt. Native creatures include the wampa and tauntaun.

The Rebel Alliance relocated to Hoth after their victory in the Battle of Yavin. However, an Imperial probe droid discovered the base on Hoth, before being discovered itself. The Rebels began preparations to leave, but Darth Vader's Death Squadron arrived too soon, and the Rebels were forced into combat to cover their escape. The Empire wins the Battle of Hoth.

The action on Hoth figures prominently in the opening of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

Hoth is an example of the science-fictional stereotype of a planet that has only one climatic zone. One school of thought holds that ice worlds couldn't exist primarily because arctic regions differ little from one another. Barring recent orbital changes, a planet like Hoth could not support life, as without photosynthesis on a planetary scale the ecosystem would collapse due to the inherent inefficiencies of biological activity consuming the existent biomass and it's stored energy. The tauntauns were obviously endothermic (breath fogging up), and so even if the wampas were exothermic, the biome would gradually lose energy that would not be replenished.

However, recent discoveries seem to show that life is not entirely dependant upon photosynthesis for a functioning ecosphere. Deep volcanic activity under Hoth's frozen oceans may provide the energy to drive the biosphere. In areas where the ice is thinnest animals may prey upon aquatic life, much as penguins and seals do. Such an ecosystem would be almost entirely carnivorous on the surface though, meaning that the tauntauns were probably a non-native life form introduced by the rebels for use as beasts of burden. The existence of frequent meteor strikes also alludes to a relatively young planetary system, in which case the core heat of Hoth may be sufficiently high to support a thriving ecosystem.

Residents of temperate or tropical climates often assume, mistakenly, that ice and snow are devoid of life. Of course, photosynthesis does occur in arctic and alpine regions of Earth. The ocean has abundant plankton, some of which is photosynthetic. In snow and ice, the rate of photosynthesis is low, but present in diverse phyla, particularly diatoms and algae. These sympagic ecosystems also include bacteria and fungi, as well as metazoans like flatworms and crustaceans.

Lord Hoth is also the name of a famous Jedi Master who led the Army of Light against Lord Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness during the Battle of Ruusan.

It is likely that his name is connected with that of the planet, but it is not known if the planet is named for him or the other way around.

External link

 * Star Wars databank entry for Hoth