Destruction of Alderaan The Destruction of Alderaan , also known as the Battle of Alderaan , occurred in 0 BBY at the order of Grand Moff Tarkin , in order to demonstrate the destructive firepower of the first Death Star . The incident resulted in the complete annihilation of Alderaan and the death of all its inhabitants . Prelude . Skywalker ' s vision . Around 21 BBY , during the Clone Wars , Anakin Skywalker , Ahsoka Tano , and Obi - Wan Kenobi were drawn to a mysterious world called Mortis . Three Force - wielders were contained there — the Son , who aligned himself with the dark side , the Daughter , who sided with the light side , and the Father , who maintained the balance between his two children . In a bid to escape his confinement on Mortis , the Son attempted to seduce Skywalker to the dark side and gain his allegiance . He forced Skywalker to see a vision of his future , in which he saw many of the evil deeds he would have a hand in — as a Dark Lord of the Sith — including the destruction of Alderaan . In order to prevent these dark events from occurring , he briefly sided with the Son , intending to force peace upon the galaxy . After learning of his son ' s actions , the Father erased Skywalker ' s memory of the vision and foreknowledge that he had been granted . Tarkin ' s order . In the absence of the Imperial Senate , Emperor Palpatine had established an environment where his subordinates were capable of unregulated military actions , including , this initiated the Death star to arrive in the Alderaan system . From the very beginning of its design process , it was intended that the first Death Star be capable of destroying entire planets , but most Imperial strategists were certain that the threat alone would be enough to keep most worlds in line . Tarkin felt differently ; as he saw it , the Rebels were growing bolder , and only a very public demonstration of the battle station ' s power — against a Rebel target — would succeed in giving them pause . His argument convinced Palpatine , and so the Emperor approved , in advance , the destruction of the so - called ' peaceful ' world . In addition , Alderaan was already considered a priority target for providing political or strategic aid to the Rebel Alliance . An unexpected battle . A small fleet of Star Destroyers had escorted the Death Star to Alderaan . Tarkin , who was in charge of the Death Star , ordered a reconnaissance of the planet . The fleet scouted out the system , and came across a Rebel fleet . The two fleets exchanged fire , and as Mon Calamari Star Cruiser s distracted the Imperial ships , assault frigates opened fire on the Star Destroyers . Reinforcements of smaller Imperial ships , such as " Acclamator " - class assault ships , supported the fleet and destroyed most of the Rebel ships . Meanwhile , the Death Star had completed the charging of its main cannon . Destruction . To obtain information on disappearance of the Death Star plans and location of the Rebel base , Darth Vader had taken the captured Princess Leia Organa to the Death Star after she was taken prisoner during the Battle of Tatooine . When she refused to yield the location of the Rebel base , or the whereabouts of the plans , despite being tortured , Tarkin threatened to destroy Alderaan in an attempt to force her to confess . Fearing that Tarkin would use the superweapon on Alderaan and other peaceful worlds , she offered the location of an abandoned Rebel base on Dantooine . Thinking that he and the Empire had won , Tarkin went ahead and ordered the destruction of Alderaan anyway , shocking the Princess . Almost immediately upon the Death Star ' s arrival in orbit around Alderaan , panicked requests for evacuation ships were sent to Carlist Rieekan , who was in command of the covert Rebel operations in and around the Alderaan system . Rieekan , who was inspecting a new satellite transmission station in far orbit around Alderaan ' s sister world of Delaya , was concerned that an evacuation would serve as proof to the Empire that the Alliance was aware of the Death Star ' s existence . Furthermore , he believed that the Imperials would interpret the sudden departure of thousands of starships from Alderaan as confirmation of the planet ' s connections to the Rebel Alliance . Rieekan wrongly concluded that the appearance of the Death Star was merely a display of force . When the powerful superlaser was fired at the planet , it met Alderaan ' s powerful planetary shield . However , the shield was unable to withstand the incredible power of the superlaser , and was destroyed within milliseconds . At full power , the hypermatter reactor had given a superluminal boost to the beam , which upon contact with the planet pushed a large portion of Alderaan ' s mass into hyperspace , destroying the planet in the process . Out of Alderaan ' s two billion inhabitants , roughly 60 , 000 survived the destruction of the world because they were outside of its star system at the time . The death of so many sentients sent shock waves through the Force , weakening those who were able to feel them . Senator Bail Prestor Organa , his wife Breha Organa , and Jedi Knight Ylenic It ' kla were some of the more noteworthy casualties of this genocidal act . Governor of Aldera Tor Aramatha was also on planet at the time . A colony of Caamasi was also wiped out . Ironically , they were refugees from the destruction of their own home planet in 19 BBY . Leia Organa suspected it was nighttime on the capital city of Aldera when the superlaser hit the surface , and she wondered if her adopted parents Bail and Breha were awake when the planet - killing cataclysm struck . More specifically , Leia Organa was later told that it had been a warm evening late in the spring when the Death Star appeared in the sky of Aldera . The destruction had also been sensed by former Jedi Master Obi - Wan Kenobi , who was himself in transport to Alderaan to supply Bail Organa with R2 - D2 aboard the " Millennium Falcon " . The magnitude of the deaths also briefly caused him to become faint . Another force - sensitive , Nova Stihl , who worked for the Empire , woke up screaming on the destruction of Alderaan . Aftermath of the blast . The destruction of Alderaan failed in its psychological goal ; wiping out a peaceful and idyllic paradise caused great consternation , especially in the Core Worlds ; Atour Riten , the Death Star ' s librarian , who had been writing what he had intended to be a neutral record of the current war against the Rebellion , concluded , after the destruction of Alderaan , that such an action was one which made it impossible to be neutral in the conflict any further . In addition , one of the gunners assigned to the destruction of Alderaan , Master Chief Gunnery Officer Tenn Graneet , was wracked with intense guilt for his role in its destruction , viewing his own actions as being unforgivable . His guilt led to the Rebels ' victory during the Battle of Yavin , when he stalled long enough for Luke Skywalker to fire proton torpedoes into the Death Star ' s thermal exhaust port during the Trench Run . A remote relay satellite orbiting Delaya had recorded the destruction of Alderaan , and despite the immediate imposition of an Imperial blockade , a Rebel operative smuggled the tape out of the system . Nevertheless , Imperial geologist s and investigators who supposedly examined the remains of Alderaan submitted early reports which implied that a series of superweapons had been under construction deep underground on the planet , and it was theorized that one or more of the hypothetical Alderaanian superweapons had misfired and ruptured the planet ' s crust . All reports were classified by the Imperial Navy . Emperor Palpatine briefly appeared at the Imperial Palace to publicly comment on the destruction of Alderaan , claiming to be distressed by the world ' s passing and inviting any surviving off - world Alderaanians to his own private resort world . Although an official explanation for Alderaan ' s demise had yet to be provided by the time Imperial HoloVision reported on the planet ' s destruction in the week after the incident occurred , their headline stated that the world had been destroyed by one of its own superweapons . Holotapes of Alderaan ' s destruction , as well as transband communcations between Alderaan and Delaya regarding the appearance of the Death Star , were eventually distributed to NewsNet s that were affiliated with the Rebel Alliance , and the 35 : 8 : 4 GrS inaugural broadcast of the Alderaan Expatriate Network asserted that all reports that Alderaan was responsible for its own destruction were false . Later that month , on 35 : 8 : 22 GrS , the Imperial Navy finally acknowledged the Death Star ' s role in Alderaan ' s destruction ; Admiral Kemel Trowe claimed that the Empire had acquired irrefutable evidence that the world had been pursuing an aggressive biological warfare program that was apparently on the verge of a major breakthrough , and that the Emperor had ordered Alderaan ' s destruction in an effort to prevent the export of dangerous biowar product to off - world Rebel cells . Soon , the destruction of Alderaan turned out to be a major embarrassment for the Empire , causing several high - ranking Imperials to portray Grand Moff Tarkin as a rogue agent who destroyed the planet without official authorization . The planet ' s destruction caused thousands of Alderaanians , who had been off - world , to immediately join the Rebellion . Most Alderaanian members of the Imperial military promptly defected . A small minority who ' d been in Imperial service , however , chose to stay on , blaming their own homeworld for its fate . Princess Leia would meet one such Alderaanian — the Imperial Navy officer Conn Doruggan — while negotiating the Bakura Truce with the Imperial governor Wilek Nereus on the planet Bakura in 5 ABY . The surviving Alderaanians founded the Alderaan Alliance as their new government . Shortly after the destruction of Alderaan , the Death Star was destroyed during the Battle of Yavin , killing Tarkin and more than a million Imperials aboard the battlestation . After the destruction of the Death Star , a handful of systems not under direct Imperial military control either declared neutrality or joined the Alliance to Restore the Republic . Alderaanians who were off - world at the time would later regularly go on pilgrimages known as the Return to the remains of Alderaan . The Return developed into a major cultural touchstone for Alderaanian survivors , with many describing it as a transcendent , life - changing moment . The procedure became fairly codified as more undertook it , resulting in the speech and ritual feeling somewhat impersonal to some Returnees . An industry developed around it catering to Alderaanians , and thieves frequently retrieved the gifts from the Graveyard then sold them on the galactic market , claiming that the gifts had " miraculously survived " the planet ' s destruction . Some time after the destruction of their world , surviving Alderaanians founded a settlement on the planet Ejolus . Eight months after the Empire destroyed Alderaan , the colony was wiped out by the Imperial Star Destroyer " Reprisal " . It was revealed that the gunner Garil Dox caused the settlement ' s destruction without realizing that he killed his fellow Alderaanians . Despite this further setback , Alderaanians founded another colony on the planet that was named New Alderaan . After the fall of the Empire , New Alderaan would become a member world of the New Republic . Behind the scenes . Although it has been debated , a shield effect is still present in the post - 1997 version of Alderaan ' s destruction . In frames 4 and 5 , the glow is concentrated in an area surrounding the point of impact , like shield interactions seen elsewhere in the films . Likewise , a similar shielding effect is seen in the premonition for Alderaan ' s explosion during the Mortis Arc of " Star Wars : The Clone Wars " . The uniform glow also extends far out into space , beyond the limits of natural atmospheres . The original novelization of the film also has a reference to defense systems on Alderaan , which were as strong as any in the Empire , and helped make the demonstration even more impressive . Despite this , however , The " Dark Empire Sourcebook " claimed Alderaan lacked a planetary shield . " " offers a humorous twist on this event . Whereas Princess Leia attempted to spare Alderaan from the Death Star by lying that the Rebel Base was on Dantooine , the player can attempt to spare Dantooine from Darth Malak ' s fleet by claiming that the Jedi Enclave was located on Alderaan . As in " A New Hope " , the attempt will fail , as Malak had already discovered and destroyed the Jedi Enclave before that point in the game . Ben Burtt originally considered leaving the explosion of Alderaan silent or to delay it for a few seconds after destruction . This delayed concept would later find its way in the creation of the sound - delayed seismic charges seen in . In the " " television series episode " Ghosts of Mortis " , Anakin Skywalker ' s visions of the future by the Son that included Alderaan ' s destruction as depicted in .