Question about distances in the Star Wars movies

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Or should we not think about things like that too closely?

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Since Star Wars is a fantasy film, I wouldn't examine the science of it too closely. Even legitimate science fiction takes liberties with distance and travel.

I believe they only call it "jumping to light speed," but it's truly faster than light travel in "hyperspace" using a hyperdrive. So...like with the Star Trek universe's "subspace," the ship actually travels in an alternate space/dimension, rather than normal space, as it travels faster than light.

Valid question. No doubt it's something the producers don't want viewers to scrutinize.

Other writers work around this sort of thing with black holes/time tunnels, etc. Or maybe their light speed really isn't the speed of light and is something greater.

So it starts off with: a long time ago in a universe far away.

From my limited understanding of the universe and what its age means, their universe should be less spread out from their own Big Bang (or the center point of their universe) than ours because Star Wars "happens" way before our time. Thats my two cents, but I was thinking about interstellar travel the other day after seeing that Passengers preview and thought why in the frick would anyone sign up for a mission that meant they would have to sleep for over 100 years just to get where they're going? Everyone they knew back home would be dead and even if you did return it'd be centuries later.

I maybe didn't consider all the angles here.

If I remember physics correctly the people on the Falcon would get to the destination instantly, while everyone around them would see the years pass. So the Empire would have advanced for several years by the time the Falcon reached the next star.

I think.

Sublight = slower than the speed of light

Hypothetically, you don't travel faster than light. Rather, you compress space, shortening the distance to your destination.

So, hypothetically, if you compressed space, and made your jump out of hyper drive (or whatever it's called) but the coordinates were off and you wound up where a planet was positioned in space, wouldn't that compress the space around the planet causing it to implode or something?

In my experience with superhero and sci-fi films, especially Marvel movies and Star Wars and Star Trek, while fun to think about some of the science behind the films (and we all have thought about the technical aspect I am sure at one point or another), the closer you look at it the more unenjoyable the movies can become. And it is a movie. Why pick it apart for the sake of something that requires the suspension of some form of disbelief anyway? Either enjoy the movie or don't but thinking too much about it really borderlines on not having anything better to do. I find that aspect of fandom certainly more irritating than in my younger days.

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I believe they only call it "jumping to light speed," but it's truly faster than light travel in "hyperspace" using a hyperdrive. So...like with the Star Trek universe's "subspace," the ship actually travels in an alternate space/dimension, rather than normal space, as it travels faster than light.

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Yeah, from ANH

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Luke: [on the Millenium Falcon] What a piece of junk!
Han Solo: She'll make point five past lightspeed. She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself.

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It's unclear what point 5 means, it could be .5% faster or 50% faster than the speed of light.

But it is something that you're better off not thinking about. In one of the prequels, Obi Wan was far enough away from Coruscant that he had to send a message to Anakin on Tatooine to relay to the Jedi Counsel. Yet the Jedis who were too far away to communicate seem to show up to rescue Obi Wan mere hours after Anakin and Padme get there.