In Brief

This Epic R2-D2 Observatory is Totally the Droid We've Been Looking For

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A post shared by DLR (@germanaerospacecenter)

A photo posted by on on Mar 27, 2019 at 8:27am PDT

Germany's Zweibrücken Observatory bears a striking resemblance to a beloved "Star Wars" sidekick.

The new look  — actually implemented around August 2018, according to the observatory's Facebook page  — comes courtesy of University of Zweibrücken professor Hubert Zitt. Zitt is known for his Star Trek and Star Wars lectures, according to the German newspaper Pfälzische Merkur, and he completed the paint job with the help of his father-in-law Horst Helle, the painter Klaus Ruffing and several students.

Mark Hamill, famous for playing Luke Skywalker, tweeted March 22 about an article highlighting the observatory posted to the website Laughing Squid.

Check out more photos of the droid decor below:

Posted by hskaiserslautern on 

And here's a video for perspective (it's in German, but well worth the watch).

May the Force be with you!  

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Sarah Lewin
Sarah Lewin
Associate Editor

Sarah Lewin started writing for Space.com in June of 2015 as a Staff Writer and became Associate Editor in 2019 . Her work has been featured by Scientific American, IEEE Spectrum, Quanta Magazine, Wired, The Scientist, Science Friday and WGBH's Inside NOVA. Sarah has an MA from NYU's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program and an AB in mathematics from Brown University. When not writing, reading or thinking about space, Sarah enjoys musical theatre and mathematical papercraft. She is currently Assistant News Editor at Scientific American. You can follow her on Twitter @SarahExplains.