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human
[Star Wars] What was the functional purpose of the Death Star's Meridian Trench (aka; the trench Luke flew through to fire the torpedo).

Looking at pictures of the Death Star and with exception to the disk, the entire Death Star's surface is dense metal structure... 

except for the trench.  

What would be the functional purpose of having a trench like that running the length of the entire equator?
gpt
The trench is one of 18 across the surface of the Deathstar, which offer access to maintenance points, docking bays, hangers etc. It also allows a place for things like thermal exhaust ports to come out somewhere that they are unlikely to be damaged by any kind of attack on the surface, which could be harmful to the core. 

It was never expected that the Death Star would be attacked by single fighters/bombers, the whole thing was pretty much designed to be invulnerable to other huge ships which might be sent against it. Even then they had heavy turbolasters to stop anything which might pass into the trench and it worked pretty damn well against the fighters that *did* attack it. 

A trench is a great idea to have a sheltered space for all these hangers, maintenance points etc to be located, safe from anything that might be near the surface. it's one of many, *many* good* design ideas in the Deathstar. 

Although it turned out that there was a "vulnerability" in that there was a thermal exhaust port that could be fired down, it was almost impossible to do. It needed a lucky Jedi farmboy, guided by the force to get the shot on target, without that there is practically no way it is *ever* having anything bad happen to it. 

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\* Good at the time.