Star Wars Day

Some Examples

Hyperspace

In Star Wars, they use a feature called Hyperspace. In Star Trek, it's called Warp Drive. Other science fiction series may call it something else. The science behind all these is that they make an object (usually a spaceship) travel at more than the speed of light, which enables them to jump from one planet to the next (or further) in the blink of an eye.

While this technology isn't present in our current day, the science behind it is gathering speed (pun intended), and there are scientists working on quantum mechanics to try and discover new ways to travel through space. We currently cannot go very fast, and rely on aspects like gravity (most further afield satellites like Voyager 1 used Jupiter's gravity to change direction and speed up away from Earth) to make them go faster or further.

In true-to-life science, similar properties are viewed in phenomenon such as wormholes. These are tubular-type structures in space that apply the Einstein-Rosen general theory of relativity. Although it has still not been confirmed that they exist, the theory that they are there and can transport objects to different distances, from a few metres, to billions of miles away, remains a fact that is explored deeply in science fiction and fantasy.

Habitable Planets

Star Wars uses Hyperspace, which is their way of travelling through their cosmos. They can travel to different planets in seconds or minutes, depending how far apart they are, and the planets are plotted on a map. There are a dozen maps you could look at for Star Wars, and they are all different, for various reasons. In lore, Star Wars planets don't move, but their plotting are different depending on the storyline in the books, games and other media that is used.

In true-life science, we don't know if there are other beings living on other planets. But, we do know that they exist. They are called exoplanets, and are located outside our solar system. Examples include Kepler-186f, the first planet to be found within the habitable zone - a zone that enables life within a safe distance from it's star. Kepler-186f is known to be slightly larger than Earth, but how it is made up in composition and mass is unknown.

But, in our lifetime at least, we will not know much more about it, as we will not be able to travel there. It would mean we would move out of the Oort Cloud, and further than any satellite has gone. Voyager 1 is the closest to it, having gone interstellar in 2012. It is projected that it will enter the Oort cloud in around 300 years.

Lightsabers

For example, In Episode VII: The Last Jedi, and Episode IX: The Return of Skywalker, the Starkiller base is described as being an old planet (Ilum) used by the Jedi for it's supply of Kyber crystals. These kyber crystals were strong with the ways of the force, and were used in creation of their lightsabers. They would be various different colours (updated from the regular green, blue and red) owing to the colour of the crystal. If you look at the different colours, in current lore they all have a meanging - blue means for justice and protection, red is for evil and power, purple is for moral ambiguity and so on.

But what about in real life? Is there a real life lightsaber? Well, no. But something close. Scouring the internet to find this, a team called Hacksmith Industries have made a working protosaber. Check out the video below - I think it's awesome.

End Note

Love it or hate it, there are some truths behind the lore, storytelling and features of the Star Wars universe. True to life science works backwards with Star Wars, afterall, it is set in a galaxy far, far away.

May the force be with you, always.