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This question features a scene from A New Hope showing what appears to be a prominent rectangular shape near the rear of the Star Destroyer Devastator. It caught my attention as it adds significant asymmetry to the design of the ship:

rectangular shape, circled

The wiki pages for the Devastator, and more generally the Imperial-I class, show the same feature from various other angles. Here is one really clear example.

What is this large rectangular protrusion on one side of a star destroyer?

Edit: Actually, this object may exist on both sides of the ship, the evidence seems inconclusive so far. Regardless, it's pretty large and would be interesting to learn if it has a specific purpose.

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Mike Mertsock
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    Why would asymmetry be important in a ship not meant for atmospheric re-entry? :) {{good question, though!}} – DVK-on-Ahch-To Jan 11 '16 at 16:58
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    Yeah, I'm not questioning the asymmetry—there are all sorts of small asymmetries visible in the little textures and details (what is the word for that?) on the surface of these ships, that make them more interesting. This is just a rather prominent (because of the asymmetry) detail that I hadn't previously noticed, and thus thought could be known to have a specific purpose. – Mike Mertsock Jan 11 '16 at 17:01
  • It's possible there is a symmetrical shape on the other side that is not visible in the still becuase of the shadows. Questionable support of that guess here: http://img09.deviantart.net/9e74/i/2013/293/f/1/the_damage_doesn_t_look_as_bad__from_out_here____by_vandavis-d6r6szh.jpg – Todd Wilcox Jan 11 '16 at 17:10
  • @ToddWilcox I checked a lot of other images showing star destroyers at various angles, and I'm pretty convinced that this structure does not exist on the starboard side of the ship. Though if I could be proven wrong, that's cool too. – Mike Mertsock Jan 11 '16 at 17:14
  • From surface checking, this feature is unique to Devastator. Your second link is (I think) ANH Devastator again. None of the cross-sections images seem to show that item. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Jan 11 '16 at 17:17
  • This image seems to show that the underside is indeed asymmetrical: http://www.thelightworks.com/models/img/models/stardestroyer05.jpg That is a photo of a model and I'm not sure where the plans for that model come from. I did see other images that seem to show a similar underside but I have not found a clean, clear image that shows the bottom of any Star Destroyer. – Todd Wilcox Jan 11 '16 at 17:23
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    Clearly that's where the fishing line was inserted. –  Jan 11 '16 at 17:27
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    probably where they "hung" the model I would guess. Dont forget those ships were NOT created on computer back then but were real models without any tinkering (at max. blue screen) applied – Thomas Jan 11 '16 at 18:29
  • @Axelrod, as you see from my comment, I read it as finishing. If I'd read it right, I would have understood. Deleting my moment of dyslexia. – ThePopMachine Jan 11 '16 at 18:43
  • Maybe it's where Vader sleeps? – thegreatjedi Feb 05 '16 at 08:12

1 Answers1

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So this is a bit of an educated guess but it should make sense. There's a picture of the ventral side of a star destroyer on theforce.net (this one is tagged as being the Devastator)

enter image description here They're not doors. They appear to be some sort of protrusion that permanently juts out. Here's one from a different angle (lower left and right corners)

enter image description here

My best guess here is that this is a sensor package. It isn't a weapon (turbolaser batteries are along the outer edges and in the hangar bay, and are typically visible at all times) and it's clearly a permanent part of the hull. You'd want some sensor packages down there to detect ships, either to shoot at or to dock with. They would have to be given an unobstructed angle from the hull or it would create a blind spot.

I think the symmetry problem has to do with lighting. The raised part on the other side is in shadow. The angle of the ship makes it hard to tell that, but the port side is getting direct light that the starboard side isn't.

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