Greetings, curious minds, and cosmic wanderers! Have you ever gazed up at the stars and wondered how incredible it would be to traverse the vast expanses of space in the blink of an eye? The idea of zipping across galaxies, hopping from one-star system to another faster than light, is a dream that has fueled countless science fiction stories and movies. But is it just a figment of our imagination, or could there be a kernel of possibility hidden within these fantastical tales?
The speed of light is in a vacuum where spacetime is not bent or changing. Under those conditions, the speed of light is about 186,000 miles per second or, for the metric crowd, precisely 299,792.458 kilometers per second, or fast enough to circle the globe 7.5 times in a single second. Physicists use the symbol “c” to denote the speed of light.
Quantum entanglement is a category of quantum mechanics. In quantum mechanics, probability rules. Anything possible can happen, governed by the probabilities of that particular situation. For example, a subatomic particle can spin plus or minus. If one is plus, the other is minus, and vice versa.
We’re going on an exhilarating journey to explore the compelling question: Is it possible to travel faster than light? Buckle up as we dive into the realms of physics, challenge the boundaries of current scientific understanding, and perhaps dare to dream of the future of interstellar travel. Let’s set sail on this adventure through the cosmos, where speed limits might just be made to be broken.
Is it possible to travel faster than light?
Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance” says that the information in quantum mechanics can travel faster than light. Nobody understands this, but it’s well-established and has an actual effect. So that’s a case of something traveling faster than light. But you can’t use it to send a message, and it’s still not the same as an object moving faster than light.
Is there anything faster than the speed of light? The expansion of the universe is faster than light. In 1929, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble combined measurements taken by several people and found that distant galaxies were moving away from Earth. The further away they are, the faster they move. It is now understood to be evidence that the universe is expanding.
A megaparsec-away galaxy moves from us at 70 kilometers per second using modern numbers. A megaparsec is a million parsecs, which is 3.26 million lightyears, but astronomers use megaparsecs. If a galaxy moves a megaparsec away at 70 km/s, then a galaxy two megaparsecs away moves away at 140 kilometers per second. Three megaparsecs mean 210 kilometers per second, and so on.
Can anything travel faster than the speed of light? There are two ways of approaching that question. The first is practical, and the second is theoretical.
Practical explanation
Could present technology make something travel faster than the speed of light? The fastest speed ever achieved by an artificial object. It is a record owned by the Parker Solar probe. NASA landed it in 2018 to investigate the sun’s outer corona.
The aura of plasma surrounds the home star, which you can see as a glowing halo during a solar eclipse. The Parker solar probe is already rattling on at a fair old lake, but by 2025, it will have reached its maximum speed of 430 thousand miles per hour. From a practical standpoint, faster-than-light travel is out of the question for our species with present technology. Two speeds are much faster in the universe than the Parker solar probe. the large
Dark matter and energy were essential to proving the fabled Higgs Boson, known commonly as the god particle. Using the facility’s 27-kilometer particle accelerator, the largest in the world, scientists have managed to get charged particles like electrons within a tiny fraction of a percent of the speed of light. But no matter how hard they try, they have never quite been able to get them there.
Theoretical explanation
As an object moves faster, it appears to gain mass. The closer we get to the speed of light, the more an object’s mass increases and the more energy is required to accelerate that object. Before it reaches the speed of light, its mass and energy to accelerate it appear infinite. The laws of physics are pretty clear on the impossibility of superluminal travel.
If lightspeed travel is impossible, how come light can do it? That’s because the light is made up of photons with no mass. They’re exempt from the above relationship between mass and energy. Photons can only travel at the speed of light, never faster or slower.
Light slows down when it passes through a medium like water or glass. That’s true, but the photons themselves never slow down. They don’t experience acceleration or deceleration when they are brought into existence. Also, they travel at the speed of light.
Why can’t anything travel faster than light?
Light can break the universe’s speed limit. It must always travel at the speed of light regardless of who observes it.
- According to classical relativity, velocity is a relative concept.
If you’re standing on the platform, a passing train might appear to be traveling 100 miles per hour relative to you. But the train would appear stationary to a passenger on the train, provided they don’t happen to be looking out of the window. It’s all a matter of perspective.
The earth is rotating at around 1000 miles per hour at the equator. If you change your frame of reference, the ground beneath your feet moves quickly. An object’s speed depends on the relative speed of the observer. But light doesn’t work that way.
Einstein realized that if the speed of light wasn’t changing even as the relative velocities of the objects around it were something else must be changing time.
Einstein had come to the startling realization that time was not constant as had always been believed. The logical inference of this discovery is that light is a constant. It is called physical constants. These are measurable universe components that never change, such as gravity.
The idea that time slows down for objects traveling at speed is a better phrase. But this relativistic effect is known as time dilation. It can be measured in the real world. So, it isn’t only some theoretical idea confined to the pages of our physics textbooks.
Effects of Traveling at the Speed of Light
If objects move away from us faster than light, the light never gets to our eyes. People can never see the light emitted by anything further away than 14 billion light-years. The actual number is slightly different because the expansion speed has changed. According to the laws of physics, light obeys the ultimate speed limit.
Where would it go if anything could travel faster than the speed of light? It wouldn’t be the spacecraft moving over the cosmic speed limit. It would be space-time itself moving around the spacecraft. If the warp drive could accelerate spacecraft to a speed ten times faster than the speed of light, it would only take about 75 seconds to get to Mars.
It would take less time to get from the Earth to the Sun. It’s time travel that we see in movies. But time travel or faster is impossible for any human because of the human body’s limitations. Humans have specific blood pressure, heartbeat rate, and many particular mechanisms that are very vulnerable. So, it is theoretically possible for time travel and faster than light speed.
There may be a way of achieving faster-than-light travel without accidentally breaking any fundamental laws of the universe in the process of a loophole. This loophole is a wormhole. It might essentially represent shortcuts through space caused by the warping of space-time. By traveling through one, you could cover billions of light-years in seconds without moving faster than light at any point.
We’ve navigated through the swirling galaxies of scientific theories, brushed past the nebulae of speculation, and dared to question the very fabric of our universe. While the reality of faster-than-light travel remains ensconced within the realm of theoretical physics and far-flung future possibilities, the journey itself has been nothing short of illuminating. It’s a reminder of the boundless curiosity that drives us to explore the unknown and the relentless spirit of inquiry that propels humanity forward.
As we gaze out into the starlit sky, let’s hold onto the dream of one day breaking through the cosmic speed limit, armed with the knowledge that today’s science fiction could become tomorrow’s science fact. Until then, let’s keep our eyes on the stars and our minds open to the endless possibilities that lie within this vast, mysterious universe. Thank you for joining me on this incredible journey. Until next time, keep wondering, keep dreaming, and never stop exploring.
More Articles:
Why Does Light Travel So Fast?
Does The Universe Expand Faster Than Speed Of Light?
Is Mind Reading Possible In The Future?
References:
Larson, Ron; Hostetler, Robert P. Elementary and Intermediate Algebra: A Combined Course, Student Support Edition (4th illustrated ed.). Cengage Learning.
Penrose, R (2004). The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe.
Uzan, J-P; Leclercq. The Natural Laws of the Universe: Understanding Fundamental Constants.
Gibbs, Philip. “How is the speed of light measured?”. The Physics and Relativity FAQ.
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