With the new movie Star Trek opening in theaters across the nation, one thing movie goers will undoubtedly see is the Starship Enterprise racing across the galaxy at the speed of light. But can traveling at warp speed ever become a reality? Scientists think it can.
Two physicists believe they have an idea that can turn traveling at the speed of light from science fiction to science, and their idea does not break any laws of physics. Gerald Cleaver and Richard Obousy theorize that manipulating the space-time dimensions around the spaceship with a massive amount of energy would create a “bubble” that could push the ship faster than the speed of light.
Cleaver says, “Think of it like a surfer riding a wave. The ship would be pushed by the bubble and the bubble would be traveling faster than the speed of light.” So why aren’t we doing this now? (although maybe someone is). The problem is that the amount of energy needed to influence the extra dimensions is equivalent to the entire mass of Jupiter being converted into energy.
“That is an enormous amount of energy,” Cleaver says. “We are still a very long ways off before we could create something to harness that type of energy.”
Art credit: Dreamstime.com
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