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In The Force Awakens, when Starkiller Base is sucking in the sun's energy to charge up for destroying the Resistance, where does the energy enter the planet?

At first I assumed it entered through the same huge hole where it fires from, but in the scene where the X-Wings arrive to try and destroy the oscillator, there's a clear shot of the firing hole with no beam anywhere. There are a few shots where you see the beam of light from the sun, but it's not clear where it meets the planet.

mluisbrown
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  • What else is there on that planet's surface besides the oscillator? Is "a safe distance from any personnel and/or structures" an answer? Because I don't think we can narrow it down more than that... – Kevin Jan 06 '16 at 11:35
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    Why can't there be multiple holes? – user931 Jan 06 '16 at 12:41
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    @SS-3 there can be more than one hole of course, but only the firing hole is ever shown as far as I'm aware. – mluisbrown Jan 06 '16 at 12:44
  • So what exactly do you want in the answer? Movies don't show lots of things. It should be obvious that there was a hole. Voting to close as it's not a real question. – user931 Jan 06 '16 at 13:00
  • I want to know if it's known where the energy entered the planet, and if so, where that is. Isn't that obvious from the question? If this question should be closed then so should most others about TFA, such as this one and this one which both ask things not shown in the film and which may simply be unknown. – mluisbrown Jan 06 '16 at 13:15
  • @SS-3 - How is the question not clear? – Valorum Jan 06 '16 at 13:41
  • @Richard What exactly OP wants to know? The coordinates of the hole? – user931 Jan 06 '16 at 13:44
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    @SS-3 - No, they wanted to know if the energy went in the big hole at the front. – Valorum Jan 06 '16 at 13:55
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    Into the giant plot hole that is this movie. – Lightness Races in Orbit Jan 06 '16 at 15:53
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit: It's a Star Wars movie. The primary goal is fun, not consistency. – Mason Wheeler Jan 06 '16 at 20:53
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    @MasonWheeler: I can tell! – Lightness Races in Orbit Jan 06 '16 at 21:05
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    @MasonWheeler In the first Star Wars films, they didn't needlessly sacrifice consistency hoping it would produce fun. Which created something with enough consistency to be worth paying attention to. Sadly, that went down hill steeply with Ewoks Binks Gungans Anakin Midichloridians etc etc. TFA at least doesn't have the same foul stench of the prequels, but it's an even steeper pit of inconsistency and general apathy towards making sense. Some people appreciate movies which are fun AND make a fair amount of sense, which apparently is an art lost to (or completely abandoned by) many... – Dronz Jan 06 '16 at 22:59
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    @Dronz All I know is, my first impression of the movie was "this actually feels like a Star Wars film, in ways the prequel never did." (Well, actually my first impression, upon seeing Rey, was "wow, she looks a lot like young Natalie Portman. I wonder...") But my impression of the film overall was that they got the feel of Star Wars right, and to a lot of fans, that's what really mattered. – Mason Wheeler Jan 06 '16 at 23:22
  • Those definitely look like two different holes in the movie. – void_ptr Jan 06 '16 at 23:37

2 Answers2

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According to the film's official novelisation, the 'dark energy' from the local star is channeled into gigantic "collectors" on the backside of the Starkiller Base planet. It's stored inside the core, then fired out through the big gun on the front:

Having been gathered in stages by an immense array of coupled collectors located on the other side of the planet, a tremendously compact volume of a type of dark energy known as quintessence had been accumulated at the center of the planet. Held in place inside a roiling molten metal core by the frozen world’s powerful magnetic field, augmented by the weapons system’s own containment field, it grew until there was nothing like it—nothing natural like it—in this corner of the galaxy.

For ease of reference, I've drawn a diagram:
enter image description here

Valorum
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    Note that in the movie, it looks as if the actual (hot, glowing, non-dark) plasma of the star is being sucked into the planet, which is different from the image most people would have from the novelization's description of "dark energy". That doesn't speak to where the energy/plasma actually goes in or is stored, which is the actual question here, but I add this comment to hopefully head off any confusion on that front. – Todd Wilcox Jan 06 '16 at 18:26
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    The longer you think about the physics behind Starkiller Base, the more completely implausible you really realize it is :P – gntskn Jan 06 '16 at 18:33
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    @deinlebenandern - Did you not see the diagram? I'm not sure how much clearer I could have been... – Valorum Jan 06 '16 at 18:36
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    @deinlebenandern physics? more like technobabble. – Kyle Jan 06 '16 at 18:44
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    @kyle technobabble? More like 16th c magical babble. They literally say "quintessence". – Racheet Jan 06 '16 at 18:59
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    @Racheet quintessence is a real thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintessence_(physics)... or at least, a physics thing they didn't make up for the book – Kyeotic Jan 06 '16 at 20:38
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    Isn't the sun alleged to be in the sky during the battle? Poe even mentions this - as long as there's light, we're okay. According to the diagram, it would have to be night on the side of the planet where the gun is located, unless the collectors are able to operate at some angle? – GalacticCowboy Jan 06 '16 at 20:47
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    @GalacticCowboy Nice catch! Wow. – Todd Wilcox Jan 06 '16 at 20:49
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    @GalacticCowboy - http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Scientific+magnets+how+do+they+work_2260e3_4841489.jpg – Valorum Jan 06 '16 at 20:51
  • @GalacticCowboy - Because things in space don't move in straight lines, they curl around. – Valorum Jan 06 '16 at 20:54
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    Also the thing they are destroying is midway between the collectors and the gun. You can see this in the movie when they have it up on the projector – Kyeotic Jan 06 '16 at 21:11
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    Starkiller Base over easy. :) – David Conrad Jan 06 '16 at 22:15
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    You hand draw the sun, the planet, the lasers, the solar particle/energy/whatever path, and then you add non-free-hand text and arrows?! – jpmc26 Jan 06 '16 at 22:34
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    How many Bothans died to get those specs? – JK. Jan 07 '16 at 02:39
  • @Mixxiphoid Yes, I was just going to say that the planet most definitely is "sunny side up". – Chris O Jan 07 '16 at 15:36
  • Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the gun collect energy until "the sun goes down"? That would mean that the collectors would have to be on the same side of the planet as the base, because we saw the base stop collecting energy when the sun went down... but I thought the base was next to the gun? Either I'm mixed up, the theory is, or this drawing is. Which one? – user151841 Jan 07 '16 at 21:28
  • @user151841 - The novel clearly states that the collectors are on the other side of the planet. – Valorum Jan 07 '16 at 21:34
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There was a large hole where the star matter was absorbed. If this is the same hole that it was fired from I do not know for sure, but I remember it being different.

Off topic:
For those who are having a hard time with the base's power source, yes it is impossible with current physics and legacy Star Wars physics, but apparently the Empire has found a way to pull the matter from a star (so lots of mass) into a smaller planets core, without pulling the smaller planet toward the star. They have also found a way to compact it enough to fit in the very small planet without the energy from compacting the gasses into such a small location and the resulting fusion causing the planet to explode. I do not like it, but I am happy that when they destroyed the planet (before firing) they remembered to put the star where the planet was. I just feel bad for all the planets in the solar system which will no longer have stable orbits.
Trisped
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