In The Phantom Menace, Anakin Skywalker travels from Tatooine to Coruscant, the capital planet of the Republic. The name "Coruscant" evokes the word "coruscate" – to flash, glitter, or sparkle. As the pilot Ric Olié explains to Anakin, "the whole planet is one giant city," which means it is literally covered in flashing, glittering lights.
Coruscant's name can also be understood through Luke Skywalker's description of Tatooine in A New Hope: "If there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from." Coruscant might as well be the "bright center" Luke refers to. Both culturally and geographically, it is Tatooine's opposite: Tatooine is a plain, austere backwater planet on the outskirts of the galaxy, whereas Coruscant is its flashy and glittering center.
Coruscant is also a place of light insofar as it is home to the Jedi and the Senate, the two major institutions that represent the light in Star Wars' central conflict between the light and dark sides of the Force. While the dark side is symbolically associated with passion and the appetites, the light is associated with reason and the intellect, and nowhere is this association more evident than in the Jedi and the Senate, two organizations devoted to thoughtful deliberation and the acquisition of knowledge (often at the expense of immediate action).
Ironically, though, when Luke refers to the "bright center" of the universe in A New Hope, the lights of the Jedi and the Senate on Coruscant have been extinguished, bringing about what Obi-Wan Kenobi refers to as "the dark times." When the bright center of the universe is darkened, the rest of the galaxy descends into darkness as well.
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