The interstellar space opera epic Star Wars uses science and technology in its settings and storylines. The series has showcased many technological concepts, both in the movies and in the expanded universe of novels, comics and other forms of media. The Star Wars movies' primary objective is to build upon drama, philosophy, political science and less on scientific knowledge. Many of the on-screen technologies created or borrowed for the Star Wars universe were used mainly as plot devices.
The iconic status that Star Wars has gained in popular culture and science fiction allows it to be used as an accessible introduction to real scientific concepts. Many of the features or technologies used in the Star Wars universe are not yet considered possible. Despite this, their concepts are still probable.
Tatooine's twin stars
In the past, scientists thought that planets would be unlikely to form around binary stars. However, recent simulations indicate that planets are just as likely to form around binary star systems as single-star systems. Of the 3457 exoplanets currently known, 146 actually orbit binary star systems (and 39 orbit multiple star systems with three or more stars). Specifically, they orbit what are known as "wide" binary star systems where the two stars are fairly far apart (several AU). Tatooine appears to be of the other type — a "close" binary, where the stars are very close, and the planets orbit their common center of mass.
The first observationally confirmed binary — Kepler-16b — is a close binary. Exoplanet researchers' simulations indicate that planets form frequently around close binaries, though gravitational effects from the dual star system tend to make them very difficult to find with current Doppler and transit methods of planetary searches. In studies looking for dusty disks—where planet formation is likely—around binary stars, such disks were found in wide or narrow binaries, or those whose stars are more than 50 or less than 3 AU apart, respectively. Intermediate binaries, or those with between 3 and 50 AU between them, had no dusty disks. In 2011 it was reported by The Guardian that NASA space telescope Kepler had discovered a planet, named Kepler-16b, with twin suns as seen in the Star Wars films.
Certified astrophysicist and Star Wars fan Jeanne Cavelos explains that scientists have been skeptical about the likelihood of binary star systems such as Tatooine since the gravity of one star may prevent planets from developing around the other. Two stars of different masses orbiting one another would cause gravity fields to shift, causing potential instabilities in the orbits of any planets in their system.
According to her, even planets in more stable orbits of a binary star system would suffer other kinds of problems such as climatic problems. As an example, a planet in a binary star system orbiting the larger star would be drawn closer to its gravitational field, causing the planet to endure heat of great temperatures during this period. As the planet passes its larger star and reaches the orbit of its smaller star, the gravitational field of that star would give the planet more distance from it. The distance (perhaps along with the smaller solar projection of the star) would send the planet into extreme frigid temperatures.
According to Cavelos, astronomers hypothesize at least two possible solutions to these problems exist and that even life supporting binary star systems could exist. One scenario could be two stars billions of kilometres apart. A planet or planets would be able to orbit one star while at minimum influence of the other. A star known as Proxima Centauri, or Alpha Centauri C, is about one trillion kilometres away from its sister stars, Alpha Centauri A and B. Also according to Cavelos, astronomers believe that Proxima Centauri could have planets of its own. If so, they would be minimally influenced by Proxima Centauri's sister stars due to the vast distance between them and these sister stars. Assuming the existence of planets around Proxima Centauri, from these planets the sister suns would appear as bright stars in the sky.
Another scenario would be two stars that would be closer to one another at a distance of only a few million kilometres. A planet orbiting far enough away would be affected by their gravitational fields almost as if there were one. If the distance between the two stars was a small fraction of the distance between them and the planet, it would be stable for the planet. Dawn and dusk would occur on such a planet as they would on Tatooine.
Blaster bolts Star Wars makes heavy use of blaster and ion weaponry, attributed to laser, plasma, or particle based bolts of light. Characters can be seen escaping, or even dodging those bolts, and the blaster bolts themselves can be seen flying at a moderate-fast speed. Dodging a laser bolt would be nearly impossible, as it would travel at the speed of light. Due to that, it is reasonable the blaster fire would pass like a sparkle, and hit its target. Sometimes, characters will call the bolts "laser bolts" that, while they do not travel at light speed, are made of intense light energy.
However, many official canonical Star Wars sources state that blaster technology is different from real lasers. According to official canon, they are a form of particle beam. This is supported by how "magnetically sealed" walls deflect them.Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
The Polish Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the University of Warsaw managed to film an ultra short laser pulse by using cameras that produce billions of frames per second. These laser pulses were so powerful that they almost instantly ionized the atoms they encountered, resulting in the formation of a plasma fiber filament.
The effects of a blaster on a live target were portrayed more or less the same in every part of the Star Wars series. Since blaster bolts consist of light or particle based energy, the bolts would burn through the flesh of a target, with some even exploding against their target, exerting great force. The latter effect was usually from a blaster with greater size. Blasters have even been shown to have plasma energy as ammunition, which is portrayed as blue bolts. As of The Force Awakens, these blue bolts rupture and damage flesh with little to no burning, which causes bleeding injuries, as Poe shot a Stormtrooper with a blaster that caused him to bleed until death. Another instance of a blaster causing bleeding was when Chewbacca shot Kylo Ren with his Bowcaster, the small explosion against his body causing a bleeding injury coupled with burns. In many modern showings of blaster fights, someone hit by a blaster has cinders and soot outlining the area where they were shot. Also blasters hit with great amounts of friction and kinetic energy, enough to cause sparks to fly off the target, make the target burst into flames, or kill a target on impact, even if the target is not penetrated by the bolt, as it is when some targets are armored against blasters.
Vibration in vacuum Star Wars is famously known for its epic space dogfights. Blaster, engine, and explosion sounds can be heard in those space scenes. Space is a vacuum, however, and since sound requires matter to propagate, the audience should not hear any sound.Star Wars Tech (2007 documentary)
This has been explained in some Star Wars media as the result of a sensor system that creates three-dimensional sound inside the cockpit or bridge matching the external movement of other vessels, as a form of multimodal interface, although the audience is still able to hear sound even from a perspective that is in space. In the canon novel Lords of the Sith it is explained that the characters in a galaxy far, far away indeed do not hear any sound in space if no longer confined by their vessels:
Therefore, the ability to hear sound in a vacuum by the audience is not heard by the iconic characters, but only to the audience as an interpretation to imagine what sounds we hear in the films as out-of-universe artifacts.
Asteroid field in Episode V
In The Empire Strikes Back, after the Battle of Hoth, the Millennium Falcon is pursued by Imperial ships through a dense asteroid field. The chunks of rock in the field are moving at rapid speeds, constantly colliding, and densely packed. Ordinarily, an asteroid field or belt is unlikely to be so densely packed with large objects, because collisions reduce large objects to rubble. About the only way for an asteroid belt to maintain itself would be to "balance destructive high-speed collisions with constructive soft collisions", but it is unclear whether this is happening in the film.
In contrast to Star Wars, the ship featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Discovery One, had a course that took it directly through the asteroid belt in the novel, without real fear of collision on the part of the mission organizers. However, the Solar System's Asteroid Belt is far less dense and several real spacecraft have passed through it without harm.
On the other hand, the so-called Trojan asteroid fields, named after the asteroids found in Jupiter-Sun Lagrange points, are known to be packed much more densely. The Solar System contains two such fields, the Greek Trojans and the Trojan Trojans, and two more (Neptune's trojans) have been discovered recently, but little is known about them currently.
Also, contained within this scene is a portion in which Han and Leia emerge from the Millennium Falcon, and are seen wearing only a facemask for air. The lack of pressure would have likely caused rapid decompression of their bodies, as the asteroid likely did not have an atmosphere. (See Effect of spaceflight on the human body.)
Flight dynamics Unlike the true flight dynamics of space, those seen in Star Wars closely mirror the familiar dynamics of flying in Earth's atmosphere. For example, fixed-wing aircraft must make banked turns because they use air pressure to operate. Yet, in the airless vacuum of space in Star Wars, the spaceships always (unnecessarily) bank when turning. Physicist Lawrence M. Krauss says this is for a simple reason: "it looks good." By banking, the center of gravity would be maintained so up is still up but the g forces generated at such speeds would surely injure the occupants. This is handled in the films by devices known as "inertial compensators".
In order to turn in non-atmospheric flight, some force must still be applied to the craft, presumably by some sort of thruster or generated force field wave, the location of which (in relation to the craft's centre of gravity) will dictate the orientation of the ship, or bank angle, required to make the turn.
Destruction over Endor
Following the events of Return of the Jedi, there has been widespread speculation that the destruction of the second Death Star as seen in the film would cause a radiation spread on the forest moon of Endor's atmosphere and surface, given that the explosion was caused by an attack on its (nuclear) core reactor.
The phenomenon has been around supposedly since 1997 following a number of comic book productions on Star Wars beyond the original trilogy (of unknown canonicity, although like most other works it has been declared non-canonical and part of the distinct Star Wars Legends continuity in 2014) and has been known as "The Endor Holocaust". It came about from a rational analysis in multiple commentaries of the aftermath of the second Death Star's destruction and its hypothetical effects on the forest moon and its living inhabitants. Based on all the information from the stories, it has been concluded that a nuclear fallout would cause radioactive contamination on the surface of the planet (or moon), leading to widespread death and destruction.
More recent analysis by physicists has supported the theory from a scientific perspective.