The Maw

The Maw was an unstable and mostly unnavigable cluster of black holes located near the planet Kessel. It was created by an unknown people, (possibly the Celestials, the Rakata, or the Kiliks) 1 million BBY.

It was the site of Grand Moff Tarkin's Maw Installation to build the first prototype Death Star. Tarkin knew that the Maw's near-inaccessibility and remoteness made it easy for him to hide the project.

The installation was actually located within a safe zone inside the cluster discovered just prior to the start of the project. The remaining area of the Maw was saturated in radiation, plasma, and strong gravitational forces. Anything that neared the edge of the Maw would notice pieces of their ships being pulled apart, and some brave smugglers and criminals used it as a shortcut past the Kessel Run.

The stability of the cluster itself was something of a mystery, with some believing that an advanced civilization might have constructed it, rather than it merging together like a normal cluster would.