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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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When a portal for a Warp jump is opened, whether a vessel is exiting or entering the warp, it destabilizes nearby gravity. The closer one is to the portal, the greater the gravitational instability, until the portal closes.{{Fn|10}} The dangers of executing a warp jump while within a gravity-well are known to every voidcraft captain of the [[Imperium]]. If done so, the warp rift of the vessel won't immediately clench shut after passing through and will instead grow to engulf anything nearby in warp and gravitational anomaly. This invariably unleashes untold ruination upon the local area post-departure.{{Fn|14b}}
To make this process difficult, the warp doesn't follow the normal laws of physics and is ever-moving with inconsistent currents and tides, so the exact exit location of long-distance journeys is often unpredictable. Small jumps of up to four or five light years are generally accurate, while longer jumps can be dangerous or a long way off mark. It is safer and easier to travel from some [[System]]s to others where established channels with well-charted warp currents are regularly used for [[Imperial]] shipping.{{Fn|1b}}
To add further unpredictability, there are drastic time differences between the warp and real space. Time passes at notably variable rates between both realities. Only once a ship jumps out of the warp can it learn how long its journey has taken in real time.{{Fn|1b}} Generally, however, one day in the warp relates to twelve days real time. Sometimes, ships and fleets within the warp can be caught in time bubbles for hundreds of years. This can lead to some strange, but extremely rare, events such as armies being sent across the galaxy to defend a threatened planet only to arrive many years too late, the planet already long lost to enemy forces. There have even been odd accounts of ships going back in time and emerging before they entered the warp. With the nature of the warp, anything is possible.{{Fn|1a}}
