A jump point is historically the main method of human interstellar travel. Jump points are located at various points in star systems and allow for greatly accelerated travel between star systems, with the duration of the journey through jump space corresponding roughly to the distance traveled. The jump takes a number of days and ships are totally isolated during their time spent in jump space, with the exception of Alliance ships being capable of small text-only communication with other ships.
Jump points were never stated as to when they were discovered but it is know that the people of Old Earth experimented. The way to travel through a Jump point is to activate your jump drive and then move your ship using propulsion into the Jump point. Human ships cannot enter jump points moving at sub-light speeds above 0.1c, or 10% the speed of light.