A close up of Luke Skywalker, sitting in his X-Wing, during his attack run on the Death Star.
At first glance, it's a very basic portrait: a boring, straight on, level headshot. Even Luke's neutral expression fits the blandness of the image..
The rule of thirds is often the "go to" composition technique and it has a role even in this center-weighted image, essentially setting Luke's distance from the camra's lens. His helmet nearly perfectly fills the space marked by the center-third of the screen. While there could be an argument about his nose lining up on the bottom-third line, it's more coincidental, a side effect of aligning his eyes to the image's center and keeping his helmet from extending past the top of the screen.
The rule of thirds is not the only compositional technique, and not always the best. A headshot of a man sitting in a chair, looking straight into the camera, is static and boring. Diagonal lines are lines of action. When a person sprints, for example, they don't run standing straight up and down, they're leaning forward. Angled.
When looking at the diagonal and intersecting lines, the image becomes much more interesting. The angles of the ship align nearly perfectly to the angles and intersections of the compositional guides. The corner-to-corner guidelines pair with the converging lines of the engines and the trench's sidewalls, not only conveying a sense of depth and motion, but also acting as leading lines to direct the viewer to Luke's face. It is no coincidence that his eyes rest on those main diagonals. Called "dynamic symmetry and dating back to the ancient Greeks, this form of composition is more fitting than the standard rule-of thirds.
A fighter pilot in a glass cockpit attacking a moon-sized space station has limited options for realistic lighting. The nearest star provides the main key light, while the grey surface of the Death Star's acts like a large reflector board, providing a motivated source for the fill lighting. With only two sources of light, one of which has the power of the sun, it creates a series of harsh shadows that helps to provide a sense of depth to an otherwise flat image.
Just a handful of years before the production of Star Wars, mankind watched in awe as humanity set foot on the moon for the first time. In the videos and photographs that were sent back during man's explorations in space, two colors dominated: grey and black; one the color of the sun bleached surface, the other of shadow. Compared to the vibrant colors of earth's oceans, forests, and deserts, the two colors symbolized space. In this image, it's the same: the grey of the X-wing's cockpit and the Death Star's trench, and the black of the shadows. Likewise, In the media from the moon, the monochrome landscape made the flags, patches, and gold-tinted visors of the astronaut's spacesuits pop. Here too, the reds and golds of the image standout.
Taking every inspiration from the closest real-world images possible makes it clear that this is space.