- "The astroliths arrive with just enough momentum to smash one another into chunks. When those chunks are small enough to transport, they fall down a collection funnel into the repulsi-veyer line and are transported to a grinding mill."
- ―Dena Yus
Astroliths was a term applied by mining engineers to fragments leftover following the processing of asteroids by breaker crews. During the era of the Galactic Alliance, astroliths were transported to and processed at the Sarnus Refinery, an refinery complex on the planet Sarnus in the Chiloon Rift nebula. Via a process known as "The Drop", astroliths would be released by breaker crews from the atmosphere of Sarnus and directed via repulsor beams and tractor beams to fall into various crash pits, then funnelled into a repulsi-veyer line and carried to a grinding mill.[1]
In 45 ABY, the biot Dena Yus sabotaged the Sarnus Refinery drop process on behalf of the Columi businessmen Qreph and Marvid Qreph by disabling the tractor beam safeguards; a subsequent astrolith drop without these protections destroyed the refinery and killed thirty thousand workers.[1]
Behind the scenes
Astroliths featured in the 2013 Star Wars Legends novel Crucible, written by Troy Denning.[1]