Harold White would disagree.
His team at NASA is currently testing the physics behind a proposed engine design which was first thought of by Miguel Alcubierre in 1994 (his paper is included as a source below). With it, he thinks it could be possible to travel to star systems in several days which take light several years to reach.
But didn't we just learn that the speed of light is impassible? Yes, it probably is. Nothing can move faster than the speed of light, however, space can expand or contract at any speed, just as the universe is expanding now.
The implications of this are astounding. If you could contract space in front of a spaceship and expand space behind it, you could cause the ship to cover vast distances in very small amounts of time. All of the math behind it fits perfectly with the math behind the theory of relativity.
So why hasn't this been done before? The simple answer is that manipulating space time is a very difficult thing to do, and requires a lot of energy. With Alcubierre's math from 1994, it would require the equivalent mass energy of something the size of Jupiter (far beyond our current capabilities). However, White recently reworked the math, and by changing the shape of the proposed engine was able to greatly reduce the energy required to a feasible amount.
While the design is still very early in the research and testing phase, I think the possibilities are fascinating. There are many scientists who are dismissing the idea as science fiction, but I believe they are being close-minded. There are so many technologies we possess today which would have seemed like science fiction only a few decades ago. If people like White had been discouraged by such criticism, they would never have come to light.
I'm not nearly experienced enough to fully understand the math and physics behind the idea, but based on what we've learned about relativity and space time in class, it definitely seems possible to me. What do you think?
Sources:
http://www.spacetimetravel.org/
http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-warp-drive
The warp drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity:
(http://iopscience.iop.org/0264-9381/11/5/001/pdf/0264-9381_11_5_001.pdf)
http://www.universetoday.com/93882/warp-drives-may-come-with-a-killer-downside/
First of all, I'm glad I learn a new stuff. I've never imagined that there could be something which goes beyond the speed of light since I learned that speed of light is the fastest.
ReplyDeleteI recognize that theroeis behind the "warp engines" are so complicated that I can barely understand, but I cannot deny the fact the basic idea is really fascinating. I'm not familiar with thinking in terms of "space," but I believe the whole post is about the speed of space. Although I cannot imagine how the space can expand or contract, intuitively I think the theory can be possible.
My last (I believe) blog post will be about the black holes and the white holes. I guess those holes are closely related to your topic.
I really enjoy what you just wrote. Definitely an eye opener/Mindblowing/Holycow moment for me, I did not know this is possible at all. Although it seems pretty fiction, I never doubt human capabilities. We are almost sending people to Mars now, and who knows, we might be able to warm space time really soon.
ReplyDeleteI really do hope one day we get to play and experience with all these special ideas(Warp/wormhole), and commanding the ability to use these will definitely bring our exploration capability to the next level.
I am definitely looking forward to what our generation can bring towards astronomy research
Zebulon Hilyard (zebulonh)
ReplyDeleteThis seems pretty bizarre and maybe a little puzzling. I guess I am a naysayer but I doubt that we can ever obtain this feat , especially in our lifetimes. I think that the people at NASA need to reach other bodies such as planets in our solar system.
Another thing we need to consider is will these spacecrafts have human life in them, because that really changes the requirements of the craft the cost of the trip the ability for us to gather information with the trip. If we cannot even reach Mars the closest planet to us without life being on that craft I just find it hard to believe we can reach distant galaxies with or without life on the craft.
I may be wrong, like you said, there was a time when people didn't think we would be able to talk with people on the other side of the world in real time.
I would just like to point out that no actual math calculations are given in the io9 blog article. Yes, a few numbers are thrown around, and it's great that White's theory would not contradict the Theory of Relativity, but it seems to me that this lacks any concrete evidence that warp drive is really possible.
ReplyDeleteEven if we manage to to find a way to bend spacetime to our advantage for travel, how are we going to cross the gap over the "pit" created by contracting spacetime? From what we learned in class, objects try to take the shortest path possible, and in space, that means following all curves in spacetime. Imagine how much energy it would require to pass over the spacetime curve on the right side of the picture above. The steepness of that curve reminds me of a black hole, and we most certainly do not have the energy capabilities to travel across the opening of a black hole. The io9 blog article mentions nothing of this, only the massive amounts of energy necessary to bend spacetime. If summoning that much energy seems implausible to many, I would imagine that adding on the energy to travel a much longer path through spacetime would render such an idea impossible.
Amanda,
DeleteIf you are interested in the math, there is a pdf included in my sources that covers it (http://iopscience.iop.org/0264-9381/11/5/001/pdf/0264-9381_11_5_001.pdf)
Although I do agree that there are a lot of challenges to overcome, and we have correct math for a lot of things that we still can't get to work physically.
Thanks! If you happen to read this again, could you explain what "exotic matter" is? It seems to me that if we need such an exotic/foreign (and seemingly "made-up," or only theorized, in my opinion) type of matter to make this work, then this isn't actually plausible as far as we can currently observe.
DeleteAs a science fiction and fantasy enthusiast, this post gives me hope that one day we could travel as those in Star Trek and Star Wars do, through absurd amounts of space in absurdly little amounts of time. As space is "the final frontier", it is amazing to think about the endless amount of unknown things and possibilities it holds. As we've discussed in class, nothing can go faster than the speed of light. And even if so, it would still take far too long to get from one place in the universe to another. Thinking about warp holes, black holes, and other formations in the actual space-time is a very interesting way to get around this problem. It does leave me asking the question that, if there is life elsewhere (which I strongly believe), wouldn't it be a high possibility of a life form being more technologically advanced? Theoretically, if there are places far more advanced, space travel could be non-existant because we have not been visited yet. And do we want this travel in the first place? It's very complicated and interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this article. I had read in the textbook that there were parts of the Universe that were over 40 Billion Light Years away but I never completely understood until I read here that space could contract and expand at speeds faster than the speed of light. The possibilities of more efficient space travel seem exciting and hopefully could give us an answer to Fermi's Paradox. It seems peculiar that we have not been contacted by another civilization given the fact that the universe has existed for as long as it has.
ReplyDelete