![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Yet, it seems that a lot of people think that NASA has accomplished this notable feat - developing a functioning warp drive. When Alcubierre came up with the idea, it was mostly just a thought experiment, not something that he believed could (or would) be created. In this respect, the path taken would become a "time-like free-fall." The ship hums along in a little bubble of space, and neither the passengers nor the vessel encounter inertial effects. The Alcubierre drive, as it was later called, uses the deformation of spacetime permitted by general relativity to warp the universe around the vessel.Įssentially, when (or if) the drive is activated, spacetime behind the vessel would expand, while spacetime in front of the vessel would contract. In his proposal, he suggested that general relativity would allow such a device, if ever built, to travel faster than the speed of light. The first scientific realization of a functional warp drive, originally devised by physicist Miguel Alcubierre, came to light in 1994. However, it is important to note that, with warp technology, you aren't actually traveling through space faster than the speed of light. Ultimately, these alterations in the fabric of spacetime allow individuals to get from one point to another faster than the speed of light. In short, space is shrunk in some areas and expanded in others (this is where the "warping" comes in). The theory for warp drive is actually rather similar to what we see in Star Trek. However, with warp drive, we could travel to distant stars, explore alien worlds, visit black holes, hop across the cosmos to see a supernova blast.all in the blink of an eye (or nearly so).ĭespite the tech seeming firmly relegated to the realm of sci-fi, we do have some very real ideas about how it might work. Both warp drive and EM drive could allow us to explore and understand our universe in ways that, today, we can only dream about - if the technology is ever developed, that is.Īt the present time, it would take us tens of thousands of years to reach even the closest stars (and that's using conservative estimates). Few things in science get people as excited as warp drive, and with good reason. ![]()
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