Relativity Strikes Back...

So much for the coolness of near, or at light speed travel.

I'd probably just stay in the Hollow Deck until we got where the ship was going...

You're on board the Millennium Falcon. You give the command to jump to light speed. The stars outside turn into long streaks of light and you're off. It's one of the most memorable images of sci-fi space travel ever created. It's also likely to be pretty far from reality, according to a study by a group of students from the U.K.'s University of Leicester.

The study, titled "Relativistic Optics Strikes Back," was published in the University of Leicester's Journal of Physics Special Topics. You can indulge in all the delicious physics equations in the abstract.

The physics students started by imagining that the Millennium Falcon has accidentally wandered into our solar system, on a direct course for our sun. If it then engaged in near-light speed travel, the stars around it wouldn't appear to stretch out. Instead, it would look more like a disc of light.

W00t:

One concern: navigation. "All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by," John Masefield from the poem "Sea Fever." Definitely not a job for Mr. Sulu, nor battles "pivoting at Warp 2." It would take some sophisticated computing, predicting where stars are before your acceleration (so you wouldn't slam into anything - that ruins any trip).

If we were ever to do it: the thrill would be in getting to the end of the trip, to clearly view the stars from another sky, and eventually the soil of another earth.

CNET: Near-lightspeed space travel: Not as cool-looking as you think