PARIS: Remember that dazzling moment in the “Star Wars” movies when the Millennium Falcon goes into hyperspace and a kaleidoscope of stars streaks past the ship? Sadly — like a lot of things in sci-fi movies — that really wouldn’t happen, a team of British science students have calculated. Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would not see any approaching stars as they accelerate through the galaxy because of the Doppler effect, students at the University of Leicester said.
This is the phenomenon by which the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation shortens or lengthens depending on whether the source is nearing or moving away from the person who is perceiving it. The classic example of the Doppler effect is the siren of a fire engine or ambulance, whose pitch changes relative to the bystander as it races down the street.
Because the Millennium Falcon is speeding toward the stars, the wavelength of the stellar light would shorten, which means it would move out of the visible part of the energy spectrum and into the X-ray range, the students calculated. On the other hand, cosmic microwave background radiation — the backwash of radiation from the Big Bang which created the Universe 14 billion years ago — would lengthen in wavelength and suddenly become visible.
No stars in ‘Star Wars’ jump into hyperspace
No stars in ‘Star Wars’ jump into hyperspace
Researchers find 10,000-year-old rock art site in Sinai
- The natural rock shelter’s ceiling features numerous red-pigment drawings of animals and symbols, as well as inscriptions in Arabic and Nabataean
- Some engravings reflect the lifestyles and economic activities of early human communities
CAIRO: Archeologists have discovered a 10,000-year-old site with rock art in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said.
The previously unknown site on the Umm Irak Plateau features a 100-meter-long rock formation whose diverse carvings trace the evolution of human artistic expression from prehistoric times to the Islamic era.
The Supreme Council of Antiquities “has uncovered one of the most important new archeological sites, of exceptional historical and artistic value,“the ministry said in a statement.
Its chronological diversity makes it “an open-air natural museum,” according to the council’s secretary-general, Hisham El-Leithy.
The natural rock shelter’s ceiling features numerous red-pigment drawings of animals and symbols, as well as inscriptions in Arabic and Nabataean.
Some engravings “reflect the lifestyles and economic activities of early human communities,” the ministry said.
Inside, animal droppings, stone partitions, and hearth remains confirm that the shelter was used as a refuge for a long time.
These “provide further evidence of the succession of civilizations that have inhabited this important part of Egypt over the millennia,” Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathi said.
He described the discovery as a “significant addition to the map of Egyptian antiquities.”
The site is located in southern Sinai, where Cairo is undertaking a vast megaproject aimed at attracting mass tourism to the mountain town of Saint Catherine, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to Bedouin who fear for their ancestral land.
