Science & Cinema: Star Wars

This week we’re exploring the science behind your favorite films! If you’d like to learn more, be sure to join us Wednesday July 1 @ 6:00 PM for a virtual program. Email register@standleylakestargazing.com to sign up. Physicist Ron Havermann will be joining us to answer questions!

Star Wars is one of the most iconic films in Hollywood’s history, and the franchise encompasses such an expansive range of scientific ideas that it’s hard to pick just one topic! (Reminder: we’re talking about Star Wars in more depth tomorrow in our virtual program at 6:00 PM, be sure to register, it’s free!)

While lightsabers and hyperspace get a lot of attention, there’s a few subtler bits in the films that don’t get challenged. One of those is the notion that the blasters used by the Storm Troopers fire a particle beam of energy in a streak that moves so slowly that its target can dodge the burst with reflexes alone. There are several problems with this. Let’s indulge the idea that particle beam energy bursts are somehow contained in a handheld weapon. Once it’s fired, any type of electromagnetic energy leaving the blaster would be travelling at the speed of light. Light is so incomprehensibly fast to our visual senses that it’s impossible to perceive the incredibly short amount of time it takes to travel from the blaster to the target, much less jump out of the way.

Scientists have actually recorded a beam of light moving at, well, the speed of light. Check it out, it’s absolutely incredible:

In addition to moving faster than we could ever even begin to react to, there’s another problem. In the Star Wars films, the bursts of energy are seen as colorful streaks, visible from all sides. In reality, to actually see light, we need to be looking at one of two things, 1) the source itself, or 2) a reflection. You can test this for yourself in a dark room, shine a flashlight at a wall and note that you can see the wall, or you can look directly at the light, but the space in between isn’t visible. 

How then can you see a flashlight’s beam under some circumstances? If you’re using a bright enough light source in an area with dust, pollen, or other naturally occurring airborne particles, that beam of light is actually reflecting off of all of those tiny bits and scattering, withs some light returning to your eye. It’s much more noticeable closer to the source (i.e. if you’re the one holding the light), try having a friend hold the light and back away, you’ll see that the beam appears to weaken the further you are away from it.

Back to the blasters, even if you could see some back scattering light, it certainly wouldn’t be visible from all sides, and it would be completely invisible in the vacuum of space where there’s no tiny particles to reflect any light off of.

We’re just scratching the surface of Star Wars science, we’ll be covering more in our upcoming posts.

Check back each weekday @ 5:00 pm for more observing guides and science news!

Learn more at: www.StandleyLakeStargazing.com

If you'd like to support us, visit patreon.com/StandleyLakeStargazing

Leave comments and questions on our page and feel free to reach us directly at contact@standleylakestargazing.com. As always-

Stay well, and clear skies!