We might have robots and virtual reality, but another sci-fi standby has
eluded technological progress: faster-than-light travel.
That impasse might not last forever, though, according to a new
story in the New York Times. Though a practical version is
still far off, physicists are increasingly optimistic — at least on a
theoretical level — about a hypothetical faster-than-light technology they
call a “warp bubble.”
Hyperdrive
According to Miguel Alcubierre, the director of the National Autonomous
University of Mexico’s Nuclear Sciences Institute, a warp bubble would
compress space in front of a craft whileexpanding space behind it. In effect,
he told the Times, the bubblewould sidestep the law of general
relativity, which stipulates that nothing can move faster than the speed of
light.
This isn’t a new idea — we’ve covered
it before — but physicists have repeatedly revised the estimated
amount of energy required. At first, they thought it would require more energy
than the entire universe contains. Then they decreased that to the mass of
Jupiter, converted to energy. Now, some suspect it would take the energy
contained in just a ton or two of mass.
Warp Dorks
Physicists still urge caution about the idea of a warp bubble.
Alcubierre, one of the greatest advocates of the idea, told the Timesthat
even if the bubble were possible, scientists are unlikely to realize it
within our lifetimes.
“I would have to say that it is probably impossible,” Alcubierre said, “and even if it turns out to be possible, we are probably centuries away from being able to do it.”
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