Students calculate what hyperspace travel would actually look
like By Darren Quick January 14, 2013 The two Star franchises
(Wars and Trek) and countless science fiction movies have given
generations of armchair space travelers an idea of what to
expect when looking out the window of a spaceship making the
jump to light speed. But it appears these views are – if you’ll
excuse the pun – a bit warped. Four students from the University
of Leicester have used Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity
to calculate what Han and Chewie would actually see as they made
the jump to hyperspace. The fourth year physics students – Riley
Connors, Katie Dexter, Joshua Argyle, and Cameron Scoular – say
that the crew wouldn’t see star lines stretching out past the
ship during the jump to hyperspace, but would actually see a
central disc of bright light. This is due to the Doppler effect,
specifically the Doppler blue shift, that results in the
wavelength of electromagnetic radiation, including visible
light, shortening as the s