 Star Wars is without a doubt one of the best sci-fi franchises out there, with splasters, aliens, and hyperdrives. But could our own galaxy be just like the Star Wars galaxy far, far away? When analyzing the science of Star Wars, there are many places to start, but one of the most interesting aspects of Star Wars is the vast diversity of life forms which fills the screen, raising the question, could there be alien life like that in our own galaxy? Well, to begin with, our Milky Way contains about 100 billion planets. Now, that's an awful lot of planets, but don't get too optimistic yet, because in order to be habitable, a planet needs to meet certain conditions. First of all, a planet needs a healthy temperature range which is suitable for life to exist and allows for liquid water to exist, which falls between negative 15 degrees celsius to 115 degrees celsius. Second, a planet needs to have a clean source of water available on a regular basis. Third, a planet needs to have the right atmosphere to provide a shield from harmful radiation, trap in the appropriate amount of heat, and provide necessary elements for life, such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur. So based on the conditions, we need a planet orbiting a star in the Goldilocks zone, which means it is not too close or too far from the star, allowing for the right temperatures and liquid water to exist. When we apply this constraint, we get about 8.8 billion planets in our galaxy which meet this condition. However, keep in mind that while these 8.8 billion planets might be hospitable like the earth, they might have different environments than the earth. For example, some planets may not have the luxury of having a peaceful environment like earth, but rather an environment where danger lurks every second. So as a result, life on the planet didn't involve quite the same way on earth. Also there's no telling how humans and other life forms would interact with each other. So we don't know if our relationship with the aliens will be anything like Han and Chewie's relationship. Aside from alien life, one can't help but notice all the advanced technology in Star Wars, especially with all the advanced space technologies such as hyperdrives. One often wonders, could we come up with something like that? Well, the fastest things humans have ever made was Helios 2, a probe which traveled at speeds exceeding 150,000 miles per hour or 241,000 kilometers per hour, which is pretty slow compared to the speed of light, which can travel at about 186,000 miles in one second or 300,000 kilometers. Alright then, so all we gotta do is find a way to travel roughly 5,000 times faster than what Helios 2 can. This isn't an easy thing to do because of Einstein's theory of relativity, which forbids any sort of matter from going faster than the speed of light through space. However, space itself can move faster than the speed of light. I know the thought of space being an entity which can move sounds a little bit confusing at first, but we'll talk about that in another video. Anyways, as I was saying, since space can move faster than light, could we utilize that property as a means of transportation? Well, there may be one way we could. Meet exotic matter, or matter with an energy density level of less than zero. In order to understand how something can have less than zero energy, we have to dive a little bit into quantum mechanics. You see, the empty space around you isn't empty, but rather teeming with subatomic particles constantly popping in and out of existence called virtual particles. As a result, the energy density of space, although which has a net balance of zero, is constantly undergoing fluctuation. However, though, sometimes the fluctuations can become calm, which results in that region of space having less energy than its normal amount, or negative energy. Negative energy has some pretty cool properties, including the ability to warp space. This ability to warp space is what gives us the hope and idea for building a warp drive. I already have a video talking about a warp drive, but just to give you the basic gist, a warp drive is a propulsion system which utilizes negative energy to contract space around a ship to move faster than light. Although this idea seems pretty neat, it does come with a few catches. For starters, negative energy hasn't been found yet. So while the map does check out, we have only verified this in theory. Also, even if we did find negative energy and utilize it, it would be very dangerous to do so. You see, since the spaceship is traveling at really high speeds, it's going to accumulate some cosmic particles in the warped regions of space around the ship on the way to its destination, which isn't a problem while the ship is traveling. But when the ship stops or slows down dramatically, those particles are going to be released in very, very, very energetic outbursts, which can destroy the ship and its crew. Okay, so that was a big let down, but what about the force? We all want telekinesis, but just how plausible is it? Well, in order to answer that question, we have to ask the question, how powerful are our brainwaves? Well, there are five different types of brainwaves to begin with. Gamma rays, beta waves, alpha waves, theta waves, and delta waves. So how strong are these waves? Well, judging by the frequencies of the brainwaves, I can say they are pretty weak. In fact, they are so weak that even detecting them alone is pretty difficult. So if it's hard enough just to detect brainwaves because they are so weak, what hope do you have that they can move objects? So could our own galaxy be like the one far, far away? Well, at the moment the answer is a big fat no. If we want to catch up with the Star Wars universe, we need to make some major technological advancements, and there's no predicting how long that will take. I hope you enjoyed this bonus video and I really look forward to 2017. So far it's been one year since I started YouTube and things are looking great. Anyways, thanks for watching and stay tuned. Also be sure to check out my website for free HD wallpapers. Link in the description below.