Sorry, Star Wars fans: Space travelers moving at warp speed wouldn’t see the stars morph into sharp beams of light. British physics students say it would look more like a general bright glow caused by the background radiation of the universe, LiveScience reports. That’s thanks to the Doppler Effect, which would move starlight from the visible spectrum into the X-ray range, while shifting microwave radiation from the Big Bang into the visible spectrum. And it would be bright: “If the Millennium Falcon existed and really could travel that fast, sunglasses would certainly be advisable,” says a member of the University of Leicester team. “On top of this, the ship would need something to protect the crew from harmful X-ray radiation.” In fact, the extra X-ray radiation would hinder the ship’s progress and require extra energy to overcome. Another team member said, “Perhaps Disney should take the physical implications of such high speed travel into account in their forthcoming films”.
