Just How Big Is The Star Wars Galaxy?

With the Star Wars galaxy being as vast as it is, there needs to be some way our heroes can travel around it without it taking thousands of lightyears to do so. Thankfully, Star Wars has an answer to this: hyperspace travel.

Essentially, hyperspace travel allows spaceships with a hyperdrive to enter an alternate dimension, in which the ship will be moving much faster than the speed of light, and so travel across the galaxy would take a matter of hours or days rather than an exorbitant amount of lightyears. Although not necessary, it became standard to use hyperspace lanes for travel, since these lanes linked planets together. These lanes act as Star Wars' motorways, with some becoming popular amongst smugglers for the planets the lanes grouped together, such as the Kessel Run; something Han Solo would become renowned for completing in less than 12 parsecs.

Whilst this sounds simple, the workings of hyperspace travel are incredibly complicated. Precise calculations are required to map the route needed to move from one side of the cosmos to the other, otherwise there's a huge risk of crashing into an asteroid field or a black hole.

Worse still, travelling through hyperspace can be exceptionally dangerous. If your hyperdrive broke during such travels, you would be unable to escape the dimension, resulting in hyper-rapture, an intense form of insanity. It was also possible for you to encounter some unfriendly beings, like the Starwierds, tall humanoids, who attack anyone unfortunate enough to bump into them.