Terraformation

Terraformation, or terraforming, is the process in which a previously uninhabitable planet is artificially made suitable for habitation by Form 1 beings, a classification that encompassed virtually all beings capable of living in a Type I atmospheric (nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen rich) environment. Total terraformation involved the manipulation of an entire planetary atmosphere and surface in order to support the continued existence of most protozoa, bacteria, insects, arachnids, crustaceans, fish, amphibians, reptiles, avians, and mammals. Partial terraformation, also often called 'pseudo-colonization', typically involved the establishment of a medium such as a biosphere or biocube, in which an artificial atmosphere and fertile soil can be set and separated from the host planet's surrounding inhospitable environment; most pseudo-colonies were suited only for sentient Type I beings as well as livestock and certain companion animals, though some were capable of accurately replicating an entire planetary ecosystem. It is also considered partial terraformation when a terraforming attempt fails and renders a planet within the Type II range, which remained breathable by Type I beings though often had a varying pressure imbalance and/or sufficient amounts of non-Type I, potentially toxic, elements. While hundreds of worlds in the galaxy naturally had a Type I or Type II atmosphere, many worlds that would later serve host to human societies underwent atmospheric manipulation, which involved the use of various chemical and radioactive reactions to either balance out the Type I elements, or to completely strip away a planet's atmosphere allowing for a new atmosphere to be introduced by 'pumping' the necessary gasses into a planet's gravitational field before using the same chemicals to balance the gasses. The Celestials were the first to utilize terraformation, though it was the Rakatan species that were often credited by historians and scientists alike with the spread of similar species across the known galaxy, as they were believed to have terraformed over 200 planets using virtually all species found on the presumed Human homeworld of Coruscant. Many different Human worlds developed their own methods of terraformation and, with the advent of the Colonial Era (12800-11600 BBY), resulted in thousands of different planets being terraformed within this timeframe. By the time of the New Sith Wars, there were more than 8,500 planets that were either completely or partially terraformed by Humans alone, though only half of these worlds were considered active and fully-explored members of the galactic community.