Scientists believe it is possible to travel through space at the speed of light: how

According to modern scientific ideas, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. But some scientists believe that there is such a theoretical possibility, and if you create a special device called a warp driver, then humanity will be able to cover enormous distances in space in a matter of seconds, writes Popular Mechanics.

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Casimir effect

During one of the experiments, research physicist Harold White for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency noticed something strange in the data.

In late 2020, scientists were conducting experiments to study the energy density in Casimir cavities, which are mysterious gaps between microscopic metal plates in space. The scientists found fields of reduced energy between the plates that cause them to move closer together, as if trying to fill a gap.

This is known as negative vacuum energy density, a phenomenon in quantum mechanics called the Casimir effect. This is what helps scientists understand the complex physics of microscale structures.

White noticed that the negative energy properties of the space between the plates looked familiar. They accurately replicated the energetic properties produced by a type of exotic matter that some physicists believe could unlock high-speed interstellar travel. Scientists have found that such a structure can form a small warp bubble. Maybe, but it wasn’t created, and that’s important.

warp driver

The warp bubble is an integral component of the theoretical warp drive that a spacecraft can travel through space at the speed of light. And some scientists believe that such an engine could actually become a reality.

A true warp propulsion must use enormous amounts of energy, which can take the form of mass, to create enough gravitational pull to control space-time distortion, allowing the ship to move inside the warp bubble. It is believed that it is possible to travel even faster than the speed of light in this way.

For example, Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre published a paper in the 90s of the last century in which he suggested that a warp drive is mathematically possible. His article says you can use a warp drive to create a broken space balloon that will fly through space, and inside that balloon there may be a spaceship.

This idea contradicts Einstein’s long-held theory of general relativity, which states that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, but this does not rule out the possibility that space itself can move faster than the speed of light.

Such journeys require enormous amounts of energy.

Alcubierre believed that a huge amount of energy would be required to maintain the warp balloon. He suggested that the negative energy implied by White’s Casimir vacuum experiments could be a solution to this problem. But no one has yet proven that negative energy is real.

Theoretically, this unknown substance could be so powerful that future warp drive designers could use it to compress the space-time around them. When the engine is started, space-time curves around the entire spacecraft. The stronger the warp, the faster the warp movement.

Physicist Jose Natario believes this requires the ability to strongly warp space-time, and he believes it requires an incredible amount of energy, perhaps even more than the Sun emits.

On the other hand, some scientists believe you need to have a warp bubble about 100 meters wide to create a working warp drive. For it to move at the speed of light, about 100 times the mass of the planet Jupiter would need to be converted to negative energy. Therefore, this possibility is excluded.

If it’s not a warp drive, it’s a fusion drive

But over the past 30 years, physicists have not given up on attempts to prove the reality of creating a warp drive. One such scientist is physicist Eric Lenz. In 2021, he published a paper arguing that warp drives could be built using positive energy sources instead of negative energy.

He discovered a new class of solutions by focusing on the weak energy condition in Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which he explained follows the positivity of energy in space-time. He came across a wave that could both meet the requirements of its energy level and travel faster than light, moving at a constant speed and keeping its shape. Such a warp balloon can operate using known energy sources, but using them to the required level is still far beyond our capabilities. He states that the next step may be to bring the energy requirements of the warp drive to the level of a fusion reactor.

A fusion-powered spacecraft could theoretically travel to Earth’s nearest star, Proxima Centauri, in years rather than decades or millennia, and then go faster and faster as energy sources improve.

Many scientists still believe that traveling at the speed of light is impossible, or at least not currently possible. For example, physicist Sabina Hossenfelder believes warp drives would not be more than 1,000 years old if they were created.

Focus He already wrote that sound can still propagate in space, and scientists have figured out how.