Galaxy
SCENE: At the end, as Luke is looking out of a window in the Rebels' medical center.
EVENT: We see what appears to be a galaxy. This could not be the galaxy in which Star Wars takes place, because they could not have reasonably traveled that distance outside of it, yet it is too close to be a neighboring galaxy.
NOTES: Astronomy major Eric Hartwell theorizes:
> Might be a sister galaxy such as Andromeda's companion galaxy.Also, galaxies have been known to collide. I tend to believe my first sentence. The Star Wars galaxy might be a companion galaxy.
Perhaps the most aesthetically satisfying explanation is given by Ernie Oporto, who says:
> It looks like a new star to me. The end of the movie seemed to be a new beginning, a new hope if you will, for our heroes. The alliance must renew its battle against the Empire, instead of running away from them. C-3PO and R2-D2 are shiny, Luke has his new hand. So why not look at the serene image of a newborn star? I doubt that is a galaxy. It certainly could be, but I like the idea of something new, as in a new star, to go along with the ending of the movie.
The actual script, however, is not so accommodating. It says:
>Together they stand at the large window of the medical center looking out on the Rebel Star Cruiser and a dense, luminous galaxy swirling in space.
One could easily argue, then, that since the intent was for it to be a galaxy, that this is indeed a blooper. However, it is not completely out of the question that it could be their own galaxy.
Recall, earlier in the movie, when the Falcon latched onto the side of the "Avenger". Captain Needa was told "The ship no longer appears on our scopes." Later, Admiral Piett makes the comment "If the Millennium Falcon went into light-speed, it'll be on the other side of the galaxy by now." If we take this comment literally, it implies that ships can travel the length of the galaxy in a matter of hours. It would therefore be possible that they were looking at their own galaxy. They could have traveled that distance outside of it in a matter of days.
The novelization sidesteps the issue altogether in its closing sentence:
> Slowly he put his arm around Leia and together with 3PO and R2, they faced the heavens bravely, each of them gazing at the same crimson star.
NOTES 2: In the book "Tales of the Bounty Hunters" in the story about Zuckuss and 4-LOM. Zuckuss ponders how rebels could get out of a galaxy's gravity shadow:
"The rebels had left the galaxy. They had gone to a point above the galactic plane, far from any stars- from all places where the Empire might track them. The Empire had left them nowhere else to run as an army. He guessed how truly desperate the Rebellion was, then. Ascending up out of the galaxy's gravity well was no easy task. Many ships could not make such a trip."