Travel time between planets (specifically Coruscant and Mustafar)

Faster-than-light travel between planets is simply a plot device to get the characters in the story from one location to the next. The length of time required for a ship to travel from Planet A to Planet B is precisely the amount of time the plot requires the ship to be in transit for.

Trying to read any more into it than that is only going to lead to frustration. It's not a plot hole, it's not a continuity problem, and it's not about Lucas lacking spatial knowledge. If Yoda needs to travel from Coruscant to Kamino to Geonosis in the nick of time to save our heroes in the arena, picking up a clone army along the way, in little more time that it takes Anakin and Padme to tavel from Tatooine to Geonosis, then that's exactly how long it will take.

It's a plot device. It's not meant to be picked apart like this, and it's not going to stand up to this sort of scrutinization. Lucas could have gone into details and spent a lot of time working out travel times so that they would all be consistent, but it is an inconsequential detail of the films, so he didn't.

If you need a pseudo-scientific or logical explanation, think of hyperspace as effectively another dimension where distances are essentially irrelevant because the hyperspace "folds into" itself when jumping from one point to another.

Don't forget that technology is merely part of the background in Star Wars. The theories and mechanisms by which it works is not important to the story.

 

We have no idea how long hyperspace travel takes, but it can't be long, considering small fightercraft like the X-wing are capable of it, and they don't seem to have a toilet or easy acces to food and water suplies. Also, Han doesn't say that the trip will take two hours, he says that they'll be there "at 0200 hours" also known as two AM. Since ship time is probably always on galactic standard time, and even if it isn't we don't know what time it was on Tattooine when they left, we have no idea how long it takes for the Falcon to travel from Tattooine to Alderaan.

Therefore ships can be assumed to travel very fast, maybe on the scale of hours when traveling very far. Anakins hyperdrive was most likely not as good as the one on Padme's ship, so even though she left after him, she could get there at roughly the same time. I agree with the Sidious-Yoda duel taking place before the Obi-Wan-Vader duel, allowing the emperor to get to Mustafar in time to save Vader.

 

A lot of EU is CANON. But there is also lot that isn't. As for space traveling. Everyone travels faster than light-speed, we know this to be hyperspace. But who really knows how faster hyperspace is than light-speed

 

Gosh you guys over analyze things. I don't guess that's a bad thing though. I'm too unobservant, I walk around all day with my head in the clouds.

 

How long Hyperspace travel takes shouldn't be an issue since it's a fantasy technology. It's clear from the script time notations that it can be very, very fast. Here's a timeline that proves it. All times are from the illustrated screenplay and remain intact in the movie as indicated by dialog and lighting.

Early evening, Coruscant: Mace/Palpatine duel and Anakin is knighted.

Night, Coruscant: Jedi Temple massacre. Everywhere, Order 66 is carried out.

Pre-dawn, Coruscant: Anakin meets with Padme and leaves for Mustafar.

In space, Obi-Wan rendezvous with the Tantive IV.

Day, Mustafar (note, it's always "day" on Mustafar, so use Coruscant time to measure): Sidious phones the Separatists that Darth Vader is coming.

Late day, Coruscant: Tantive IV arrives. We only know that Obi-Wan was picked up sometime during the day.

Day, Mustafar: Anakin arrives. Apparently it's still the same Mustafar day as Sidious' message.

Late day, Coruscant: Obi-Wan and Yoda enter the Jedi temple. They must have gone there directly from the Tantive IV's landing.

Sunset, Coruscant: Palpatine declares himself Emperor.

Day, Mustafar: Anakin kills the Separatists.

Night, Coruscant: Obi-Wan reprograms the Jedi Temple computer.

Early Afternoon, Coruscant: Obi-Wan visits Padme. WHOA! We've skipped ahead at least 12 hours. (Obi-Wan and Yoda must have spent all night at the Temple, gathering their stuff and loading it onto the Tantive IV. That's how Yoda has an extra robe to put on after his duel.)

Day, Mustafar: Anakin stands on the balcony crying. By Coruscant time it MUST be about "24 hours" since he arrived on Mustafar! What has he been doing?

Sunset, Coruscant: Padme leaves for Mustafar. We see Sidious in his office talk to Vader on the phone to learn that the Separatists are dead. This confirms that events on Mustafar are happening simultaneously with those on Coruscant rather than being edited out of sequence, and that Anakin has, in fact, been on Mustafar for longer than an entire Coruscant day and night.

Day, Mustafar: at the end of the phone call with Sidious, Anakin sees Padme's ship approach on sensors.

So, according to the script, Padme left Coruscant at sunset and Sidious, also at sunset, got on the phone with Vader. Padme's ship is picked up on Mustafar's sensors at the end of the same phone call. Therefore Padme's transit time was only slightly longer than the duration of Sidious and Vader's phone call. The only way to avoid that conclusion is to throw in an extra day, to place the phone call at the NEXT sunset, which would mean that Anakin was on Mustafar for two days, which makes even less sense.

Night, Coruscant: Yoda and the Emperor duel.

Day, Mustafar: Anakin and Obi-Wan duel.

Night, Coruscant: Clone troopers tell the Emperor they can't find Yoda's body. The Emperor senses Vader is in danger and says to prepare his ship for immediate takeoff (to Mustafar).

Day, Mustafar: Duel continues.

Night, Coruscant: Bail picks up Yoda.

Day, Mustafar: Duel ends. Obi-Wan leaves in Padme's ship. The Emperor's shuttle arrives. Note that the Emperor's travel time wasn't necessarily any longer than Padme's. Anakin's travel time when he made the trip was a bit longer, but he wasn't hurrying. Both Padme and the Emperor were traveling urgently.

Coruscant, Day: Emperor's shuttle returns with injured Vader. Since it's not still night and both Padme and the Emperor have established that travel between Coruscant and Mustafar can be almost instantaneous, it probably took a little while to stabilize Anakin for transport before they flew back to Coruscant. It was probably no later than morning, though, because it's still day on Coruscant when Vader's reconstruction is finished.

So there you go. Outer rim or not, travel time between Coruscant and Mustafar is under a minute or two if you really gun the engine. Maybe there's a special hyperspace corridor or something. I don't want to say wormhole in Star Wars. But it's pretty conclusive that there's no out-of-sequence editing. Events happ

 

i am very impressed with how you thought this through Magic_Al!

 

Anakin, master mechanic that he is (when he's not slaughtering innocent women and children), happened to have caught a local showing of Spaceballs, then souped-up (sp?) all his friends's an dloved-ones' rides so they could travel at ludicrous speed.

 

Actually we never get to know how long the Emperor uses to get to Mustafar. We only see Obi take off and then Anakin crawling up the riverbank and The Emperor's shuttle approaching. We don't know how long Anakin/Vader has been lying there. I think the timespan from "Order 66" and up to Palpatine's arrival at Mustafar is like this:


In Coruscant time:

Around Midnight: Order 66 and the temple massacre. Obi-Wan escapes Utapau and Bail Organa arrives at Kashyyyk for saving Yoda.

Middle of the night: Anakin and Padme meets at her veranda. Obi-Wan meets Yoda and Bail in space.

Early morning: Yoda, Bail and Obi-Wan arrives at Coruscant. Palpatine talks to Gunray
Anakin arrives at Mustafar and "takes care of" the separatists . Obi-wan and Yoda fight their way into the Jedi-Temple. Palpatine declares the Empire.

Noon: The decalibration of the retreat signal and Obi-Wan watching the security footage. Yoda and Obi-Wan decide to destroy the Sith

Early Afternoon: Obi-Wan talks to Padme

An hour later: Padme departs Coruscant with Obi-Wan aboard.

Late Afternoon/Early Evening: Palpatine orders Anakin to send the message to the Trade Federation. Padme's ship enters Mustafar's atmosphere.

About a half hour later: Padme lands. She is choked when Anakin sees Obi-Wan. The Duel begins.
The Palpatine and Yoda duel begins.

Midnight: Yoda "loses" and escapes. Palpatine leaves for Mustafar.

Night: Obi and Anakin continue the duel. Obi cuts of Anakin's arm and legs and leaves him. Obi leaves Mustafar.

Very Early Morning: Palpatine finds his apprentice burned and gravely injured. Obi arrives at Polis Massa.

Afternoon (around 3 p.m): Palpatine arrives at the medical facility. The droid at Polis Massa tells Obi that Padme has lost the will to live. On Coruscant the work on Anakin begins. Padme gives birth to the twins

About 2 hours later: Padme dies.

Evening: The work on Anakin is finished. He is told he kiled Padme.

Next morning: Arrival at Naboo. The childrens fate are decided.

Sunset: Padmes funeral

Night: Obi-Wan arrives at Tatooine and delivers Luke to Owen and Beru. Bail arrives at Alderaan


That's at least what I think

 

i think the emperor just apparated

 

This just in...the physics of our world have nothing to do with the physics of another galaxy. And by the way, lightspeed in our own system is still in an infantile state theoretically. It has been recalculated twice since Einstein, and it gets faster all the while. We think mass gravity superaccelerates light, especially if a black hole or pulsar is near. So, if your aren't an astrophysicist how about you leave it alone?

 

Well in the SW universe they use Hyperspace routes right? That almost sounds like there are sorta like wormholes through the whole galaxy, maybe some are shorter then others?

 

From the time Anakin and Obi-Wan return to Coruscant after rescuing Palpatine, to the end of the duel, four days pass.

Anyway... ships can obviously travel through hyperspace in hours, if that. Nothing contradicts this anywhere in the saga.

Contradicts stuff in the EU, maybe... but we don't give a flying falleen about the EU.