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You're onboard the Millennium Falcon. You give the command to jump to lightspeed. The stars outside turn into long streaks of light and you're off. It's one of the most memorable images of sci-fi space travel ever created. It's also likely to be pretty far from reality, according to a study by a group of students from the U.K.'s University of Leicester.

The study, titled "Relativistic Optics Strikes Back," was published in the University of Leicester's Journal of Physics Special Topics. You can indulge in all the delicious physics equations in the abstract.

The physics students started by imagining that the Millennium Falcon has accidentally wandered into our solar system, on a direct course for our sun. If it then engaged in near-lightspeed travel, the stars around it wouldn't appear to stretch out. Instead, it would look more like a disc of light.… Read more

While Americans are all trying to blow out their electrical circuits with insane light displays, Canadians are busy creating elaborate edible gingerbread structures. A gingerbread "Star Wars" Millennium Falcon is blowing away the competition in Canada's National Gingerbread Showcase 2012.

The insanely elaborate creation comes from the Canoe Brewpub in Victoria, B.C. The spaceship appears to have landed on Hoth, judging by the presence of tons of shredded coconut snow and a Wampa. Chewbecca also lounges near the ship. … Read more

SpaceX engineers are reviewing telemetry to figure out what caused a dramatic first stage engine failure Sunday night during launch of a commercially developed cargo ship on the company's first operational flight to the International Space Station, officials said today.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket's flight computer fired the remaining eight first-stage engines longer than planned to compensate for the failure of engine No. 1 and the Dragon cargo capsule was successfully boosted into the required orbit, setting up a rendezvous with the space station Wednesday morning as planned.

The SpaceX launch generated widespread interest because it was … Read more

It's time to vote on Facebook policy, expect changes in Motorola, and give thanks in five words:

Within the coming days, expect the chance to vote on Facebook's privacy policy. Facebook recently made an amendment stating that if it announces a policy change and 7,000 users write comments on that announcement post, then Facebook has to put it up to a world-wide vote. Activists from the website our-policy.org encouraged people to post comments on a recent change, and it worked: more than 47,000 comments poured in, so its expected Facebook will open the change to … Read more

It's time to share your searches, stream original content and earn good Karma:

With all the news focused around Facebook, Microsoft just quietly launched its own social network for students called So.cl (pronounced "social"). It's different from Facebook and Google Plus in that it is focused around search. What students search for on So.cl is shared with other So.cl users -- and it can be shared on other networks like Facebook. The idea is to give students a quick and easy way to share information found through searches.

Hulu has unveiled 10 original and exclusive shows … Read more

We have lift-off! It's a new era for social media, space exploration and... shoes?

Update: The SpaceX rocket launch was aborted at the last minute and rescheduled for Tuesday, May 22 at 3:44 a.m. Eastern.

Facebook ended its first publicly traded day right where it began: at $38 a share. CEO Mark Zuckerberg rang in the Nasdaq opening bell virtually from the Silicon Valley campus, and later, shares began trading at around $42 each. Facebook's bankers saved the IPO, keeping shares barely above $38. From this IPO, Facebook raised $16 billion. That's almost 10 times … Read more

SpaceX and NASA said today that May 19 is the new launch date for the first-ever attempt to send a private company's rocket to the International Space Station.

Intended as a demonstration flight, the mission is designed to give NASA and SpaceX information that will help them plan future missions to the space station. Weather scrapped the previous attempt at the launch, which had been scheduled for May 7.

Unless weather or other factors intervene, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft will launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on May 19. On May … Read more

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its attached Dragon spacecraft exhaled flames for a few seconds today at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

After pausing the first attempt at a test firing of the Falcon 9 due to a glitch just moments before the end of the countdown, SpaceX proceeded with a second attempt, which succeeded. The rocket remained stationary, but the system passed the "static fire" test with flying colors, putting Elon Musk's commercial space venture one step closer to reaching the International Space Station for the first time.

The test firing was the height … Read more