Katie Dexter, 21, from Kettering, concluded: "Perhaps Disney should take the physical implications of such high speed travel into account in their forthcoming films."Ĭourse leader Dr Mervyn Roy, a lecturer at the University's Department of Physics and Astronomy, said: "A lot of the papers published in the Journal are on subjects that are amusing, topical, or a bit off-the-wall. Joshua Argyle, 22, from Leicester, added: "The resultant effects we 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." On top of this, the ship would need something to protect the crew from harmful X-ray radiation." Riley Connors, 21, from Milton Keynes, said: "If the Millennium Falcon existed and really could travel that fast, sunglasses would certainly be advisable. Their calculations also show that Han would need to store extra amounts of energy on his ship to overcome this pressure in order to continue on his journeys. The pressure felt by the ship would be comparable to that felt at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The group found after further investigation that the intense X-rays from stars would push the ship back, causing it to slow down. They have shown that the crew would actually see a central disc of bright light.Ĭosmic Microwave Background Radiation is radiation left behind from the Big Bang, and is spread across the universe fairly uniformly. The four students - Riley Connors, Katie Dexter, Joshua Argyle, and Cameron Scoular – have shown that this would not be the case. In the films, spacecraft are equipped with hyperdrives which allow them to approach the speed of light.Īs the hyperdrive is engaged, every star in the sky is seen to stretch before the characters' eyes as the ship speeds through the galaxy. The students are encouraged to be imaginative with their topics, and the aim is for them to learn about aspects of publishing and peer review. The journal is published every year, and features original short papers written by students in the final year of their four-year Master of Physics degree. The group of fourth year MPhys students published the findings in this year's University of Leicester's Journal of Physics Special Topics. But University of Leicester students have calculated that – in reality – Han, Luke and Leia would not see the light from stars stretching past the ship as we are shown in the movies.