Bending the Spacetime Continuum, Scientists Develop Model for Light-Speed Space Warp Drive

Scientists have claimed to develop a physical model for light-speed warp travel that would allow spacecraft to cover far distances while bending the Space-Time continuum.

The authors of the study said that it introduces the first general model for a positive-energy subluminal spherical symmetric warp drive.

Light-Speed Warp Drive: Future of Space Travel

A study published in the journal Popular Mechanics entitled "Introducing Physical Warp Drives" makes key distinctions between existing Alcubierre drive models and that of the study.

Authors explain that in concept, the study demonstrates that any warp drive, including earlier stated Alcubierre drives, is a shell of either regular or exotic materials moving inertially with a specific velocity. Thus, in reason, any warp drive will require propulsion. The study highlights that a class of subluminal, spherically symmetric warp drive spacetimes.

Researchers theorize that the model can be constructed with physical principles currently known to man, which hints at the possibility of light-speed warp travel in the near future.

Scientists' theories are based on early theoretical physics proposed by Miguel Alcubierre. In the paper's abstract, published by physicists in the early 2000s, he wrote that the warp drive would be possible by modifying spacetime.

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Spacetime Continuum

For over a hundred years, since Einstein first postulated the Theory of Relativity many are still unaware of the implication of one of the most famous scientific formulas to date.

The space-time continuum, explained by Einstein's theories and other quantum physicists, is a conceptual model combining the three-dimension fabrics of space with the fourth dimension of time.

According to experts, the spacetime continuum explains the unusual relativistic effects that come from traveling near the speed of light as well as the motion of massive objects in the known universe.

Warp Drives and Einstein's Theory

Alcubierre once wrote that a purely local expansion of spacetime behind the spacecraft and an opposite contraction in front of it would put the motion faster than the speed of light.

The distortion observed by factors outside the disturbed religion will be reminiscent of warp drives seen in science fiction. On the other hand, wormholes and exotic matter will be critical in generating distortion in the spacetime continuum.

In theory, a warp drive would work within the boundaries of Einstein's theory of relativity. Traveling faster than the speed of light would require infinite amounts of energy. However, restrictions apply to objects in spacetime rather than on the spacetime continuum itself -- which is how the known universe expands faster than the speed of light post-Big Bang.

The paper highlights its difference from Alcubierre's notions. Rather than using theories of negative energy, a substance that doesn't exist in the universe, scientists postulate that bubbles of spacetime could be utilized to make the drive possible.

Professor and Research Fellow Sabine Hossenfelder explains that passengers aboard the spacecraft canning break the speed of light barrier for themselves. Hence the passengers will need to move normally within a bubble while the bubble itself is moved superluminally.