Sunspot was a minor planet that was located within the Tython system of the galaxy's Deep Core region. The small world experienced violent storms when it passed the planet Malterra in its orbit, and it had an extremely hot climate. More than thirty-six thousand years before the Battle of Yavin, the non–Force-sensitive settlers of the planet Tython colonized Sunspot. Millennia later, mining operations had been established on the planet.
Sunspot was a minor planet with no moons that was located within the Tython system of the galaxy's Deep Core region. The orbit of the small world was closer to its sun, Tythos, than that of any other planetary body in the star system, coming as close as forty-eight million kilometers at some points. Additionally, Sunspot was near to the orbital path of Malterra, the second planet of the system. The two worlds rotated around their common star in opposite directions, however. Scientists speculated that Sunspot was a rogue planetoid that had been captured by the gravitational pull of Tythos. Sunspot experienced violent space storms and magnetic interference when it passed Malterra in its orbit for four days, and the climate on the small planet was extremely hot.
A tectonically active world, Sunspot was considered solid but was a planet in constant flux. Volcanoes erupted constantly around the equator, and groundquakes racked the world every day. Despite the hostile environment of the planetoid, Sunspot's crust was filled with exotic elements that could be transformed into fuel, or converted into weaponry. Deeper down, strange crystals that rang with the power of the Force could be found. Scientists also speculated that the rare element known as dark matter could be found, or at least created using material buried in the arid environment. Settlements existed in the polar regions of the world, where the ground was more stable and habitable. Even from its dark side, the violent storms that racked the world were visible from space as the lava and magma illuminated the atmosphere's noxious clouds with a pinkish light.
When the non–Force-sensitive settlers of Tython— the fifth planet of the system— traveled to its neighboring worlds more than a millennium after the year 36,453 BBY, they began to turn their thoughts to Sunspot. It wasn't until the 29,000s BBY that a series of exploratory missions began visiting the world to search for any signs of previous habitation. Believing the planetoid to have originated from outside the star system, the scholars examining the world believed that it might hold clues to its origins but were underwhelmed with the lack of evidence the crust held. The mining operations on Sunspot relied on a rotational crew of miners hoping to earn their fortunes, attracted by legends of great stores of wealth in the planet's crust. While 10% of miners died every year, and a miner might only remain on the world for one or two seasons, the profitability of the mines was no mere myth.
At some point before 25,800 BBY, the Koorivar Slug had an on the planet that left him indebted to Daegen Lok— a member of the mystic Je'daii Order. By 25,793 BBY, mining operations had been established on Sunspot, which were made possible by the use of environment suits. In that year, Ketu—a Temple Master of the Je'daii Order—told the Padawan learners Harun and Resi the history of the Tython system, and mentioned the colonization of Sunspot, amid other events.
In the the final years of the Je'daii Order, rogue Je'daii Journeyer Dalien Brock led a cabal of Stargazers to Sunspot to arm a device designed to power a Gree hypergate they believed was hidden deep in the Old City of Tython. Tracked to Sunspot by Je'daii Ranger Lanoree Brock and her comrade, Tre Sana, the rogue Je'daii had planned his trip to Sunspot to coincide with the orbital crossing of the planet with its neighbor Malterra. Hoping that the space storms would prevent the Order from stopping his plot, Je'daii Brock managed to land at Ran Dan's Folly near the southern pole safely. Hoping to prevent her brother from finding dark matter in the bowels of the abandoned mining complex, she failed to stop the Stargazer Cult but managed to continue after them to prevent them from succeeding on Tython.
Sunspot was first pictured in the entry for Tython in The Holonet feature of the official website for Star Wars: The Old Republic—a 2011 massively multiplayer online roleplaying game developed by BioWare. The planet was depicted in a schematic of the Tython system. Since its establishment in 2008, The Old Republics website has gone through a number of changes, resulting in the removal of some of the features and images that were originally located there, including the aforementioned schematic. The Tython system—and therefore Sunspot—was placed in grid square L-10 by The Essential Atlas—a reference book co-authored by Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace, and published on August 18, 2009. Sunspot's name and additional information on it were provided in Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi 0, a preview issue of the Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi series of comic books. The issue was published on February 1, 2012, and was written by John Ostrander and penciled by Jan Duursema. The small world was also mentioned in the first and the eighth issue of the series, which were published on February 15, 2012 and February 27, 2013, respectively.