Hyperspace....how fast is it?

What is hyperspace? Is it the speed for the parsec? Is it faster than lightspeed. We all know it doesn't top ludicrous speed. Just how fast is hyperspace?

 

Hyperspace is lightspeed I think, maybe not. Parsec isn't a time, it's a length.

 

I think it vary's form ship to ship.The millinium falcon can reach .5 past lightspeed

 

Hyperspace is an existing concept, though theoretical. The basic idea is that the shortest path between two points is not a straight line, if you look at it from a multi-dimensional perspective. This shorter path is not confined to three spatial dimensions, and is known as hyperspace. It allows a ship to go seemingly faster than light.

Hyperdrive is a lot faster than lightspeed (otherwise it would take decades for ships to get anywhere), and "lightspeed" seems to just be a shorthand way of saying "really fast".

 

thats what i always thought, if lightspeed was as fast as hyperdrive, it wouldnt work, itd take forever to get accross the galaxy

 

And .5 past lightspeed doesn't have to mean 1.5 c, either. It could refer to some other system of measurement that wasn't explained in the movies.

The Falcon can apparently travel at many times c because Piett claims it could have gotten halfway across the galaxy in what looks like a short time in ESB.

 

"The Falcon can apparently travel at many times c because Piett claims it could have gotten halfway across the galaxy in what looks like a short time in ESB. "


Or maybe that was a figure of speech, perhaps? ?

I'm curious as to the speed of hyperspace too...

 

[EU ANSWER ALERT]Dark Force Rising states that Point 5 past lightspeed was 127 light years per hour[/EU ANSWER ALERT]

 

Take a piece of paper (space), then fold it many times. Take a pencil (your space craft) and then stab it all the way through the paper. There's your Hyperspace for you. It's a process of folding space and then creating a wormhole (a short tunnel) to the other side.

 

127 lightyears per HOUR! HOLY CRAP! I knew the Falcon could burn up the space lanes, but WHOA! This means that the Falcon could basically fly up and kiss the U.S.S. Enterprise on the hull before Picard could blink. (Highly figurative language)

 

127 lightyears per hour is 1.1 million times lightspeed. I have heard guesstimates ranging from 2 to 40 million times lightspeed.

At 1.1 million X LS, the falcon could go from one side of the GFFA to the other in 39 days if it could do so in a straight line.

 

It's not so much speed, but rather creating a dimensional leap; a small corridor from one part of the cosmos to the other.

 

Damn straight.

 

No... damn curved.

 

You can say it's pretty damn fast.

 

Think about how fast you run. Then think about how its faster then that.

 

There is no upper limit to hyperspace travel, but there are some basic limitations:

Objects with sufficient mass create "gravity shadows" in hyperspace. Hyperdrives cannot operate inside the gravity shadow of a planet, star or black hole.

Because ships in hyperspace can only travel in a straight line, navicomputers have to plot the best course possible to avoid those obstacles. There are 3 or 4 major trade routes that can nearly cross the width of the galaxy. Ships can travel along these routes unimpeded.

However, if a ship wishes to travel to a world that does not lie along those major trade routes, then they have to plot several jumps in order to get around stars that are in the way.

For example, a major trade route links Tatooine to Coruscant, so a ship could travel between them very quickly because they would have to make no stops.

 

No... damn curved.

Hehe, I like a good science joke.

 

I think I remember in one of Zahn's books Luke travels a half a lightyear in about ten minutes. I worked out the calculations based on what hyperdrive rating his X-wing had, and figure out how fast that is and then how fast other ratings would be. I may have read it wrong though, I'm not 100% sure it actually says 1/2 lightyear in ten minutes. LaMent's answer is probably more accurate(I suck at math). It sounds about right too, one of the fastest ships being able to cross the galaxy in a little over a month(more, considering all the course changes needed). So the average ship could probably cross the galaxy in maybe a year(rough guesstimate).

That's an EU answer, but it's the best you'll get

 

Actually, assuming there are no obstacles, a ship could cross the galaxy in a couple weeks.

But being that it is a galaxy, it is strewn with obstacles, and that severely limits hyperspace speed.

 

Sure beats the tar out of the Voyager, doesn't it? It would've taken them 70 years to plod home, and that was only about half the galaxy. (I do like Star Trek, but nowhere near to the level of Star Wars. Hence two posts in one thread comparing the two.)

 

how fast would a ship have to go to travel a lightyear in ten minutes? or however grand the distance in reference to time.

 

EU ALERT: The Thrawn trilogy gives some weird numbers for ship speed in hyperspace. Maul was able to go from Coruscant in the core to Tatooine on the Outer Rim in less than a day, as did the Death Star from Alderaan to Yavin 4 (both trips from the Core to the Outer Rim). Yet TTT gives spans of multiple days for Star Destroyers and the Falcon to get between systems that shouldn't be as far apart. Odd.

OK, the EU bit's done.

I agree that "halfway across the galaxy" is an exaggeration. No way hyperdrive could be that fast, otherwise Maul and the Death Star would have been there a lot sooner.

But, yeah, whoever's figures you use, it's still a lot faster than warp drive.

 

Sure beats the tar out of the Voyager, doesn't it? It would've taken them 70 years to plod home, and that was only about half the galaxy. (I do like Star Trek, but nowhere near to the level of Star Wars. Hence two posts in one thread comparing the two.)

Although in ST V:The Final Frontier, they travel to the centre of the Galaxy in a very short space of time.

how fast would a ship have to go to travel a lightyear in ten minutes?

6 ly/hr

 

that wasnt very nice. i think i could have deduced that much on my own.

somebody earlier in the thread said they calculated it and im curious to a number as in miles traveled