Tatoo I / Legends Tatoo I , also known as G1 , was one of the yellow stars at the heart of the Tatoo system . A binary star , its partner was Tatoo II . Description . Tatoo I was a G1 - type main sequence binary star , sister of G2 - type Tatoo II . They formed the Tatoo system with the planets Tatooine , Ohann , and Adriana . The system lay at the crossroads of the Triellus Trade Route and the Old Corellian Run in the Arkanis sector of the the Slice ' s Outer Rim segment . In Huttese , the dominant language on Tatooine , the twin suns were known as " Gi Dopa Gasha . " Tatoo I was formed when a hydrogen molecular cloud collapsed . Throughout most of its life , energy was produced by nuclear fusion , which converted hydrogen into helium . Each second , millions of metric tons of hydrogen were converted into energy within the Tatoo I ' s core , producing neutrinos and solar radiation . It had a lifespan of roughly ten billion years as a main sequence star . Tatoo I did not have enough mass to explode as a supernova . At the end of their lifespan , stars of its kind entered a red giant phase , their outer layers expanding as the hydrogen fuel in the core was consumed and the core contracted and heated up . Culture . Children on Tatooine would tell stories of huge , powerful dragons that lived inside the two great suns that shone down upon them . Smaller cousins of these dragons were said to live in the fusion furnace s that powered many types of machinery and vehicles . As a slave boy , Anakin Skywalker would climb to the roof of his hovel at night , lie back , and imagine he was as far from Tatooine as possible . A decade later , in 23 BBY , an 18 - year - old Skywalker found himself in the Fondor system , 40 , 000 light year s away from the hovel ' s roof , gazing up at the binary stars that he knew to be Tatoo I and Tatoo II — the twin suns of his home planet — and he imagined the day when he would return to Tatooine and free his enslaved mother , Shmi . History . Some early explorers thought the first planet of the system to be a third star , because of its blazing light reflected by its sodium - rich deserts . Tatooine had a strong presence in the Force , which led the Infinite Empire of the Rakata to the star system of Tatoo I . The collapse of their empire in 25 , 200 BBY caused the system to be left alone for some millennia . The Galactic Republic explored the segment of the Slice in which Tatoo I was located during the Great Manifest Period and the Indecta Era . By 1004 BBY , the nearby region belonged to the Brotherhood of Darkness , including Hutt Space , a large region of the known galaxy controlled by the Hutt species . After the Seventh Battle of Ruusan in 1000 BBY , the region remained in Hutt control until the reign of the Galactic Empire . During the Galactic Civil War , the system changed hand several times : its region was taken from the New Republic by the Empire during the Thrawn campaign , but was left after the Grand Admiral ' s death . Later , the space around Tatoo I was controlled by the Galactic Alliance , until the Sith – Imperial War 127 – 130 ABY , when the Fel Empire conquested much of the known galaxy , but was quickly replaced by Darth Krayt ' s Sith Empire . Behind the scenes . Tatoo I was created for , but technically it appeared first in the of the film in December 1976 , half a year before the premiere . Although the famous binary sunset scenes both depicted the two suns as being of similar size , other sources show one sun significantly larger than the other . No explanation for this has been given .