How fast can they travel in the Star Wars galaxy

Yes, however I'm not sure on Mustafar's exact placement on the galaxy map.

 

I find it notable that the ROTS novel does not even place it in the Outer Rim. (It doesn't specifically place it anywhere.)

 

Well, in the ROTS movie, Grievous says that Mustafar is in the Outer Rim. I want to say that it's near Tatooine, but I can't say for sure.

 

Mustafar is closer to Dagobah than any of the other movie planets.

 

...Which is strange given that LOE said Utapau was in the Outer Rim, and Grievous is on Utapau when he says Mustafar is in the Outer Rim, so it's as if Utapau is somewhere else. Except Tion Medon refers to Utapau as "remote". Maybe it's on the "border" between the Inner Rim and Outer Rim?

 

Mid Rim/Outer Rim

 

So it is on the border?

 

This would be very true. Lightspeed would not be possible in the dimensions of normal space. The Falcon would occupy all points of the Universe at once. The energy requirements would be infinite. There's also the problems with relativistic time dialation. The faster the Falcon would move through space approaching the speed of light, the faster it would move through time. If they traveled at 1/3 the speed of light, even if the trip took a few days for them, when they reached their destination, they'd find that many years had already passed for everyone else.

If the Millenium Falcon went into lightspeed it could be half way across the galaxy by now....

This to me would be the biggest peice of proof that "lightspeed" refers to traveling at the speed of light through hyperspace. In hyperspace, the speed of light could be attainable do it's dimensions being quite different from our own. The distance would be shortened greatly by traveling through the "folds" of space. This means that you could travel from one system to the other in the way it's portrayed in the movies.

Which would make Han's statement of the Falcon making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs make sense. Since a parsec is a measure of distance and not time.

It is true that physics may operate completely differently in GFFA, but then it wouldn't be as fun to speculate and the answer would be simply "who cares." Besides, I get the impression that Lucas would like to respect certain laws of physics (of course not enough to restrict the plot).

 

Exactly. A faster ship, like the Falcon, can fly closer to the obstacles without being influenced by their gravity.

 

Yes, I agree with nearly everything you said, but want to mention something tangental for a second (no pun intended):

Temporal "dilations" and other aspects are mathematical constructs and explanations of Relativity, pure theory, arising merely as teaching aids, and stem from Einstein's own poor teachings - no one has ever demonstrated that Time exists, much less that it's actually anything which can be "slowed". Clocks can slow down, and do, but Time is a sheer abstraction, a category of the mind. Furthermore, "the speed of light" is nothing metaphysically special but the speed at which photons (and other patterns) are created and destroyed in a wavicle "path" as a pattern propogation. If the Falcon travels at/near the speed of light, and "iff" (if and only if) the energy/mass equations are always correct (given recent proven research, it's a big "iff"), then Han would be dead when he got there, and the Falcon's clocks would have stopped - systems would be slowed, but Time would be unaffected.

Sorry for the tangent...pet peeve about Relativity Theory (RT), which has been challenged by much better theory in the last few decades. "Relativistic" mass equations have really only been tested in the real Universe up to the speed of our rockets, which ain't very fast (like less than 1% of light), and which were usually a part of the Earth's atmosphere...one field which generates the "slowing" effect, because it is an electro-magnetic system (eg. our orbiting satellites need constant adjustment for slowed chrono equipment).

So, back to SW, I've always liked that ships are only shown flying on thrusters at fairly slow speeds, but as indicated by many of us, going redunkulously fast through a hyperspace tunnel. In this way, "point five past lightspeed" could very well mean 150% of the speed of light, but that it's lightspeed relative to the interior of a hyperspace tunnel (which itself would negate RT's fundamental assumption), so it could equate to 5-6000 times lightspeed through normal space. Either way, it works, and explains the highly convenient travel times in SW.....but.....going lightspeed or beyond, even through a hyperspace tunnel (another purely theoretical construct), needs an explanation as to why the mass equations would not apply...

 

It seems to me that they can travel anywhere in the galaxy in matter of a few hours. The Falcon didn't seem to take more than that to reach the remains of Alderaan in ANH and in ESB Admiral Piett comments that the Falcon could be "on the other side of the galaxy by now". And this was very soon after the Falcon had eluded the imperials.

 

Yes, the EU ( starting with Zahn ) largely ignored this, and assumed long travel times.
The PT and OT are actually consistent on this point.

People just can't let go of what they were told by their EU...

 

Individual hyperdrive speeds can vary, which may account for the different travel times. Plus, as I said above, not every ship takes (or is capable of taking) the swiftest route to their destination.

 

Given the EU was my source for the "20'000 light years in 3 hours", I have to say it's pretty consistent with what the PT and OT have said.

 

Ludicrous Speed!

Ha, that's fast.

 

See, when I was really young, I thought a parsec was a measure of distance, then as I grew older I came to realize it was a measure of time. The Falcon is indeed a quick ship. Seeing as how Han bragged here, it can be assumed no other ship has made that run that quick. So it'd suffice to say the Millenium Falcon is the fastest ship in the known GFFA

 

Well, a parsec is a measure of distance, but in space travel, that means light-years (the distances are so great, the measure was developed as the speed of light through a vacuum for a year, hence, light-year). Han Solo is saying the Falcon was able to do a specific, non-linear course run by cutting "corners" and turns much closer than any the other ships, and thus it shortened the distance to less than 12 parsecs to win the Kessel Run. Han's hyperdrive is hot-rodded in order to sneak faster and closer to gravity wells than other ships.