Where do laser bolts go?

I was wondering during the Battle of Yavin when all the tie's come after all the X-Wings, the laser bolts that miss them and fly off into space, where do they go? Do they just carry on going and hit some poor bloke on some planet that was inline with there stray blaster fire?

 

They probably end up hitting Yavin or one of Yavin's moons.

 

I am not an expert on laser theory, but I would assume that eventually the energy from the beam bleeds off into space as it travels until it simply fades away.

 

^ I agree.

 

They travel in herds to the laser graveyard.

 

The JC Forums - where the important questions are asked.

 

they lose energy after a few seconds or minutes probably, die

 

At least on Video Games

 

Yeah, if you want to use the video games as evidence, the blasts fade away after they travel a certain distance.

 

that's probably so that nothing has to calculate too many laser blasts all over the place

 

Yeah, what you see in the video games isn't always what will really happen. If that was the case, then blowing up Mos Eisley will result in everything from the rubble to the blast marks vanishing into thin air (reference to Rouge Squadron III).

 

Damn my eyes for not remember what the actual law/equation is, but I remember there is a "rule" in science that says that all light energy including laser light, decrease by a constant factor the further it travels from the origin point. So those missed shots in SW would travel on for a set distant till their energy disappaits (sp) totally. The distance being determined by the amounto f energy imparted to the "output" at the time of generaiton. Or something like that, it's been a decade since I sat in on a basic science class, so I can't remember the exact details.

 

They boldly go where no bolt has gone before!

 

Gotta imagine they just dissapate sometime...it would kinda suck to suddenly get blasted out of the blue as you're walking down to the shops on Anvar VI, due to a bolt fired eight years previously finally hitting something.

 

I doubt the odds of getting hit with one of those stray bolts are high (chances are that you are more likely to be struck by lightning then that).

 

The farther they go, the more spread out the light wave gets. IE, they fade out.

That, of course, is what would happen to the light portion of the blast. Whatever actually causes the damage must fall apart far sooner than that.