What would hyperspace travel really look like? Making the jump
to lightspeed in the Millennium Falcon wouldn't look anything
like the way it's depicted in the Star Wars movies, say
University of Leicester students. In the films, as hyperdrive is
engaged, every star in the sky is seen to stretch before the
characters’ eyes. In reality, though, it appears that the crew
would actually see a central disc of bright light, as the
Doppler effect would mean there was no sign of stars. Doppler
blue shift occurs when a source of electromagnetic radiation –
including visible light - moves towards an observer, meaning
that the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation is shortened.
Anmd this, says the team, means that 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. All they'd see is a central disc of bright light,
as cosmic microwave background radiation is shifted into the
visible spectrum. "If the Millenniu