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Bespin

Distance from Core	49,100 light years
Region	Outer Rim Territories
Sector	Yarith Sector
System	Bespin system
Orbital period	approx 14 years
Rotation period	12 hours
Number of suns	1
Number of moons	2 principal
Major species	Humans, Ugnaughts
Population	6 billion
Official language	Basic
Terrain	Gas giant(floating cities)
Surface water	None
Points of interest	Cloud City, Tibannopolis, Life Zone
Affiliation	New Empire

Bespin is a fictional planet in Star Wars films and books. The planet was first seen in popular culture in the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back (since known as Star Wars Episode 5). In the early Star Wars films, planets were usually depicted with one single environmental characteristic: Tatooine was a desert planet; Hoth was a snowy planet; Dagobah was a swamp planet. In like fashion, Bespin was a cloud planet.

Since its introduction in the 1980 film, Bespin has gained more specific characteristics in the Star Wars canon. The greater Star Wars canon is known as the Star Wars expanded universe.

Bespin is featured in Star Wars:The Empire Strikes Back over which the floating city Cloud City hovers suspended by an anti-gravity pod. Bespin is also a major source of tibanna gas, which is refined for production and transport in Cloud City and used in the production of starship blasters. It is home to several billion individuals including humans and Ugnaughts.

The planet Bespin is a gas giant that is about 118,000 kilometres in diameter. Like most gas giants, it has a solid core made of metal followed by layers of metallic gases. Most of the layers of gas are poisonous, and the pressure and temperature are far above what a human could tolerate. But from approximately 150 to 180 kilometres down from space there is a habitable layer known as the Bespin Life Zone. This layer has an oxygen atmosphere with the temperature and pressure that makes it ideal for human life. It is in this layer that Cloud City is located. Like most gas giants, Bespin has a number of moons. Bespin has a 12 hour day, and completes an orbit around its star about every 14 earth years (10220 Bespin days).

The Millennium Falcon, by Han Solo's admission, barely made it there from the Anoat system without the hyperdrive.

Lando Calrissian, the previous owner of the Millennium Falcon, administered Cloud City and provided "well-paying" jobs for the Ugnaughts until the Galactic Empire occupied the system.

During the Galactic Civil War, Darth Vader later captured Cloud City (as seen in The Empire Strikes Back) in what became known as the Occupation of Bespin.

The Jedi Knight Streen, an old gas prospector, was discovered on Bespin by Luke Skywalker and recruited to be part of the first class of the Jedi Academy. He had lived in the abandoned Tibannopolis complex as a hermit for years, trying to stay away from the larger galaxy.

NOTE: In the popular computer game "Starcraft" the gas-like source of energy is called "Vespin" gas in reference to Bespin.

• Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays, softcover, 1997. George Lucas, Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan, Laurent Bouzereau, ISBN 0-345-40981-7
• Star Wars: Jedi Search, (Book 1 of the Jedi Academy Trilogy), 1994. Kevin J. Anderson, ISBN 0553297988
• The Essential guide to Planets and Moons (Star Wars), 1st edition, by Daniel Wallace, Scott Kolins. 1998. ISBN 0-345-42068-3

• Bespin in the Star Wars Databank
• Bespin on Wookieepedia, a Wikia wiki