Traveling faster than the speed of light - a dream of mankind, which occurs above all in science fiction.
But researchers are now claiming that “warping” might be possible.
Munich - In Star Wars, the spaceships shoot with “hyperdrive” from planet to planet, in other science fiction universes it is called differently, but the dream of many stories is the same: to travel faster than the speed of light, so: warping.
What was previously considered purely physically impossible and therefore pure fantasy should now actually be possible, as researchers have found out.
NASA has been researching it for years without success - so now another team of scientists may have made a breakthrough.
You have developed a model that can do without something that has been the deal breaker in all theoretical experiments: exotic matter that simply does not exist in our universe.
The new model, however, can do without them.
Incidentally, “warping” comes from “bending” and that is exactly what happens with this type of drive: The space around the traveler should be bent.
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How fast will humans move in the distant future?
The researchers' theory sounds like something out of a science fiction film.
© dpa
Warp drive: “Passenger space” inside - time runs differently there than outside
The study was published by researchers from the Advanced Propulsion Laboratory (APL) in Virginia in the journal "Classical and Quantum Gravity".
In “Introducing Physical Warp Drives”, explains Professor Sabine Hossenfelder, research associate at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, in a YouTube video, the researchers describe the drive as follows: The drive is a bubble inside which the “passenger Space "is located.
There space-time is flat, there is no gravity.
The outer shell of the drive consists of as yet unknown material and has the gravitational field of the drive itself. In a far distance, however, there is flat space-time.
Means: The time in the passenger area can differ from the time in the outside area.
This is the only way to move faster than light.
Even the new model cannot be constructed with the current technology that we have for a long time.
The fact that the recently devised drive is at least beyond the limits of known physics is still a big first step so that we can soon - like Han Solo or Luke Skywalker - jet into distant galaxies.
We don't have to look for a new planet yet.
But there is a time when life on earth will no longer be possible.
When exactly - that's what researchers have now discovered.
