Small Moon
Small Moon
[Millennium Falcon follows a Tie Fighter towards an unidentified orb in the distance.] Luke Skywalker: He's heading for that small moon. Ben Kenobi: That's no moon - it's a space station.
Luke Skywalker: It's too big to be a space station. Ben Kenobi: But it's too small to be a moon.
[Three hours pass]
Ben Kenobi: Fine! What if we agree it's not a moon, but we make a new category called "Dwarf Moon"? Luke Skywalker: And what's the cutoff, asshole?! Is this ship a dwarf moon now? Ben Kenobi: Screw you.

The comic depicts a classic scene from Star Wars Episode IV , in which the heroes trail a TIE fighter to the never-before-seen Death Star : a super-weapon the size of a small moon capable of demolishing entire planets. In the original scene and the comic, Luke Skywalker misidentifies a body as a natural satellite, and Obi-Wan 'Ben' Kenobi ominously corrects him.
The comic's version diverges at this point, as the dialogue devolves into a rather bitter argument over the semantics of size classifications, alluding to scientific discussions on whether Pluto should be classified as a planet or as a dwarf planet . The argument goes on for hours, which in the original plot would suggest one of two situations:
The argument is confused as to whether they're talking about size or about natural vs artificial objects. In terms of size, the Death Star is much larger (70 km radius) than dozens of full-fledged moons in our solar system. One of the smallest moons found so far in the solar system is S/2009 S 1 , which is about 400 meters in diameter and orbits Saturn. But we don't generally speak of the tiny rocks in the rings of Saturn as moons, so there is some distinction there, which may include the orbit of the object [1] . There is also the distinction between natural moons and spacecraft, which seems to be ignored in the final panel.
The title text makes reference to a later scene in the film when Rebel pilots are being briefed on the planned attack on the Death Star. Those who analysed the plans for the Death Star run into the same discussion picture, and end up arguing about the classification of the Death Star, dividing those involved into the 'artificial moonlet' camp and the 'rogue planet-station' camp, thus deunifying the rebellion. If events are otherwise the same from the movie, this is also happening at threat of their destruction, and thus a crippling of the Rebellion.
The timing of the comic may be related to the New Horizons mission to Pluto . The spacecraft awoke from hibernation 4 days earlier, on December 6, 2014, to start the encounter phase with Pluto.
[Millennium Falcon follows a Tie Fighter towards an unidentified orb in the distance.] Luke Skywalker: He's heading for that small moon. Ben Kenobi: That's no moon - it's a space station.
Luke Skywalker: It's too big to be a space station. Ben Kenobi: But it's too small to be a moon.
[Three hours pass]
Ben Kenobi: Fine! What if we agree it's not a moon, but we make a new category called "Dwarf Moon"? Luke Skywalker: And what's the cutoff, asshole?! Is this ship a dwarf moon now? Ben Kenobi: Screw you.
