StarKiller {SPOILER}

[Reverend]

In the novelization it is said to be mobile, yes. However it's also said to collect dark energy (or matter? I forget which) instead of stellar matter and the local star going dark is just a side effect of all that diffuse dark...stuff condensing in one place. Either way, astrophysics gets to take a holiday for this one.

 

[Set Harth]

This map has a location labeled "Starkiller Base Origin Point", which can be taken to imply its mobility.

 

[CommanderTrip]

ahhh, ok. gotcha, makes more sense now. Thanks!

 

[publiusr]

In the novelization it is said to be mobile, yes. However it's also said to collect dark energy (or matter? I forget which) instead of stellar matter and the local star going dark is just a side effect of all that diffuse dark...stuff condensing in one place. Either way, astrophysics gets to take a holiday for this one.

I think Alan Dean Foster called the motive power drained from stars quintessence
It is one of the candidates for Dark Energy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy
https://lecospa.ntu.edu.tw/dark-energy/
http://physics.princeton.edu/~steinh/steinhardt.pdf
http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.2941

There was a recent Science channel special that had a screen full of fanciful names that might be the source of good technobabble.
http://www.space.com/32635-spaces-deepest-secrets-show-science-channel.html

 

[Reverend]

"Quintessence" is just another way of saying "the Fifth Element." So Starkiller was powered by love, I guess?

 

[Ithekro]

Pulls out the love of everyone around and deploys it as concentrated firepower. Like a Care Bear.

No wonder Kylo Ren was trying to off his father. HIs love was making the beam overpowered and giving General Hux too much clout with Snoke,

 

[jgalley]

What I want to know. And I haven't seen anyone else bring it up despite all the other things (the gravity, etc).....how in the hell did they keep the energy/heat they were absorbing from the sun(s) from igniting the atmosphere?

 

[The Wormhole]

What I want to know. And I haven't seen anyone else bring it up despite all the other things (the gravity, etc).....how in the hell did they keep the energy/heat they were absorbing from the sun(s) from igniting the atmosphere?

Never mind that, why is the planet still snowy? The power of a sun being funneled through the planet's atmosphere must be causing the temperature to rise, right?

 

[Ithekro]

They have really good shields.

 

[The Wormhole]

But what about the area surrounding the "collecting vent?" That's got to be damn hot, yet it's still snowy there.

 

[fireproof78]

What I want to know. And I haven't seen anyone else bring it up despite all the other things (the gravity, etc).....how in the hell did they keep the energy/heat they were absorbing from the sun(s) from igniting the atmosphere?

I believe it is in the novel where the energy draw is actually done via hyperspace window at Starkiller's core.

Not sure if that helps or confuses the matter.

 

[Richard Baker]

But what about the area surrounding the "collecting vent?" That's got to be damn hot, yet it's still snowy there.

I don't think we ever see the region where the energy is funneling down to- IIRC we just saw it coming down in the horizon.

When I read the book describing the Starkiller and it's energy weapon I was left more confused than ever- it was like a season's worth of Voyager Technobabble.

 

[USS Firefly]

I believe it is in the novel where the energy draw is actually done via hyperspace window at Starkiller's core.

Not sure if that helps or confuses the matter.

The latter

 

[fireproof78]

The latter

Yeah, I figured I didn't make it clear. I think it was on a fan commentary where someone described it much better than I could. There's a lot of little details that didn't quite make it in the film that would have helped out a lot. It shows much it made sense though

This video is a little more helpful:

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[publiusr]

Folks are working on heat recovery
http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/08/efficient-conversion-of-waste-heat.html