How some ‘Star Wars’ ideas became real-life science

These elements of ‘Star Wars’ stories might seem like science fiction but are actually real.

Just 48 short years ago, movie director George Lucas used the phrase “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” as the opening to the first Star Wars movie, later labeled Episode IV: A New Hope. But at least four important aspects of the Star Wars saga are much closer—both in time and space—than Lucas was letting on.