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Given that the Millennium Falcon was using sublight ion drives when careening at the bridge of the Avenger (Captain Needa's ship), why could they not track the ion drive emissions and see where it stops? If the ion trail just ceases to exist on the "back" of the bridge area, send a TIE fighter to take a look.

Alternatively, there should also have been some fairly substantial sound from the hull when the manual grapple (And/or magnetic grapple) was employed to bring the MF to the sudden halt necessary. (or even some stormtrooper looking out a random porthole)

Vader

Alert all commands. Calculate every possible destination along their last known trajectory.

That would seem to indicate to start at point of origin and go out from there.

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The Falcon doesn't have many distinct features - it could have easily blended into the ship's hull at a cursory eye view - and no one had any reason to believe Solo would hook himself onto the Star Destroyer (who WOULD try something that insane?), so no one was really looking for him right there.

The sound of the Falcon itself careening over the Star Destroyer could have distracted the bridge crew long enough for them not to notice the sound of the ship locking onto the larger ship with magnets (speculation I know, but that's what I've got to work with).

And even if they were 'starting' from the Star Destroyer, no one would expect the Falcon to be AT that point - every ship would head out from that point forward, but without any reason to look at the Star Destroyer itself, they'd pass by it quickly.

In short - It was a crazy enough idea to work (and magnets aren't that loud, apparently).

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    Any comment on the main part of the question, the ion trail?
    – JohnP
    Commented Mar 11, 2014 at 19:07
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    @JohnP - That actually ties up quite nicely. If the ion trail stops right alongside the Star Destroyer then that would strongly suggest that they've gone into hyperspace. The reality is that it stops because they're still there but who could have predicted that?
    – Valorum
    Commented Mar 11, 2014 at 19:10
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    @JohnP Only a comment, since it's the speculationist of speculation. For one, if they had reason to believe the Falcon had cloaking capability, they must have also assumed that their ion trail could also be cloaked. And two, we can assume the Star Destroyer may have been moving during the pursuit of the Falcon, meaning the end of that trail would have been the point at which they were when the Falcon latched on, a fair distance behind them. And, what Richard just said also makes sense.
    – Zibbobz
    Commented Mar 11, 2014 at 19:12
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    "The sound of the Falcon itself careening over the Star Destroyer could have distracted the bridge crew" -- we in the movie theater hear sounds in space, but is it really canon that crews of one ship can hear other ships passing by them through a vacuum?
    – Hypnosifl
    Commented Mar 11, 2014 at 23:25
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    @Hypnosifl I can't think of a proper citation, but I think starships in the Star Wars universe actually ARE equipped with sensors that create sound feedback on surrounding ships, though really, what would have distracted them would be the Falcon sweeping by and nearly killing them all, less the sound. And, since we in the theater didn't hear the Falcon lock on, obviously nobody on the bridge did either.
    – Zibbobz
    Commented Mar 12, 2014 at 13:26

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