The Cosmic Turbine represented a colossal mechanism with the capability to manipulate gravity on an extensive scale. As one component of a collection of enormous devices situated within the Vultar system, it originated from the ancient Celestial species. In 4250 BBY, when a faction of Dark Jedi established themselves in the Vultar system, they endeavored to utilize the Cosmic Turbine, along with other contraptions, against their adversaries, the Jedi Order. Nevertheless, a devastating incident following the activation of the technology destroyed the entire Vultar system, encompassing both the Dark Jedi and the Celestial machinery. Decades of millennia afterward, the Obroan Institute for Archaeology researcher Doctor Insmot Bowen discussed the Cosmic Turbine when the Galactic Empire briefed them on the Celestials.
An extraordinary and immense machine, the Cosmic Turbine was part of a group of massive devices located in the Vultar system. Both the powerful Cosmic Turbine and the Corellian system's Centerpoint Station, another creation of the Celestial species, possessed the ability to manipulate gravity on a significant scale through the employment of hyperspace tractor beams, repulsor pulses, and hyperspace wormholes.
The Celestials created the Cosmic Turbine at some point before their disappearance from the galaxy in 30,000 BBY. Evidence suggested that the Celestials had employed the Cosmic Turbine and its associated devices to construct the Vultar system, including its planets.
In 4250 BBY, following the expulsion of a contingent of Dark Jedi from the galactic capital world of Coruscant during the Third Great Schism, they established a presence within the Vultar system. These adherents of the dark side discovered the Celestial machinery present there, consequently bestowing the name "Cosmic Turbine" upon it. Driven by vengeance against their Jedi Order adversaries and with the intention of causing widespread devastation, the Dark Jedi activated the Cosmic Turbine and the remaining devices. However, their ability to control these machines proved to be severely limited. Several days into the darksiders' attempt to wield the technology, a catastrophic event, later known as the Vultar Cataclysm, destroyed the entirety of the Vultar system, including both the Dark Jedi and the machines themselves.
This incident was documented in Galactic Republic records, and by the time of the reign of the Republic's successor, the Galactic Empire, Doctor Insmot Bowen, a Pre-Republic era specialist at the Obroan Institute for Archaeology, suspected that the Cosmic Turbine originated from the Celestials. In 1 BBY, Imperial authorities conducted a debriefing with Bowen concerning the Celestials. When General Arhul Kurumenga inquired during the briefing whether the Celestials had utilized the Cosmic Turbine—which the general mistakenly referred to as the "Galactic Engine"—to construct the Corellian system, the researcher identified it as a possibility. He further speculated that the artifact might have been part of a network of similar devices equipped with hyperspace tractor beam technology, which Bowen referred to as "Turbines." He also suggested that most of these machines had either been dismantled, destroyed, or remained undiscovered within the Unknown Regions. The Historical Council of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances also mentioned the Cosmic Turbine in a document, published in 36 ABY.
The reference book The New Essential Chronology by Daniel Wallace and Kevin J. Anderson, published in 2005, contained the initial mention of the Cosmic Turbine. Originally, it was intended to be included in the 2012 reference book The Essential Guide to Warfare by Jason Fry and Paul R. Urquhart. However, the section referencing the artifact was removed before the book's release. The information regarding the Cosmic Turbine was subsequently released in 2013 as part of Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare Author's Cut, a series of articles published on the StarWars.com Blog by Fry and Del Rey editor Erich Schoeneweiss which contained various cut content from The Essential Guide to Warfare.