Hypothermia

Hypothermia was a condition caused by exposure to extreme cold temperatures that could be fatal if not treated. The condition could be warded off through layered clothing or by using a space heater to generate heat. While species adapted for hot environments like Rodians were particularly suspectible to hypothermia, it could also affect beings native to cold worlds, such as the tauntauns of the planet Hoth. Tauntauns suffering from the ailment displayed distress signals of loud bleating and violently thrashing their heads. In spite of the cold, the internal body cavity of a tauntaun killed by hypothermia was capable retaining heat for some time after death.

Han Solo experienced hypothermia in his hands when he spent the night before a coaxium heist in 10 BBY in the Iridium Mountains on Vandor with Tobias Beckett's gang. Years later in 3 ABY, while serving with the Alliance to Restore the Republic at Echo Base on Hoth, Solo rode a tauntaun into a snowstorm to find and rescue the missing Luke Skywalker. During this excursion, his tauntaun collapsed and died from hypothermia because of the cold.

Text and facts from the “Hypothermia” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.