Star Wars fans, here's what a 'hyperspace jump' actually looks like

Sorry, "Star Wars" fans. Hyperspace travel may not be quite the breathtaking sight of stretching stars and all, as depicted in the highly popular trilogy.

 

Instead of the iconic images of stars stretching while the Millennium Falcon jumps to hyperspace, its crew would have seen just a central disc of bright light.

 

At least this is the calculation made by fourth-year University of Leicester MPhys students, who published their findings in the British institution's Journal of Physics.

 

Students Riley Connors, Katie Dexter, Joshua Argyle, and Cameron Scoular argued there would be no sign of stars because of the Doppler effect, which causes the siren of an ambulance to become higher in pitch as it comes towards you.

 

“If the Millennium Falcon existed and really could travel that fast, sunglasses would certainly be advisable. On top of this, the ship would need something to protect the crew from harmful X-ray radiation,” said Connors, 21, from Milton Keynes.

 

Argyle, 22, from Leicester, added the resultant effects they worked out were based on Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity.

 

"So while we may not be used to them in our daily lives, Han Solo and his crew should certainly understand its implications,” Argyle added.

 

“Perhaps Disney should take the physical implications of such high speed travel into account in their forthcoming films,” added Dexter, 21, from Kettering.

 

For his part, course leader Dr. Mervyn Roy, a lecturer at the University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, said many of the papers published in the Journal are on subjects that are amusing, topical, or a bit off-the-wall.

 

"Our fourth years are nothing if not creative! But, to be a research physicist - in industry or academia - you need to show some imagination, to think outside the box, and this is certainly something that the module allows our students to practice," Roy said.

 

He said most of the school's masters students hope to go on to careers in research where a lot of their time will be taken up with scientific publishing - writing and submitting papers, and writing and responding to referee reports.

 

“This is another area where the module really helps. Because Physics Special Topics is run exactly like a professional journal, the students get the chance to develop all the skills they will need when dealing with high profile journals later on in life,” he said.

 

Doppler blue shift

 

The students cited the Doppler blue shift, a phenomenon caused by a source of electromagnetic radiation —including visible light— moving towards an observer.

 

Such an effect means that the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation will be shortened.

 

"From the Millennium Falcon crew’s point of view, the wavelength of the light from stars will decrease and ‘shift’ out of the visible spectrum into the X-ray range," a university release said.

 

As a result, they would "simply see a central disc of bright light as Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation - radiation left behind from the Big Bang, and is spread across the universe fairly uniformly - is shifted into the visible spectrum."

 

Other calculations

 

Also, the students found the intense X-rays from stars would push the ship back, causing it to slow down.

 

The pressure felt by the ship would be comparable to that felt at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

 

"Their calculations also show that Han (Solo) would need to store extra amounts of energy on his ship to overcome this pressure in order to continue on his journeys," it said. — TJD, GMA News