Science fiction has made use of the idea of a “warp drive” – a drive that could let people and ships travel through space without worrying about the concept of speed and time – for decades.
But could such a thing ever be physically possible?
This new model suggests it actually could be – and it wouldn’t necessarily require us to leave the limits of physics behind, either.
Previous models for achieving warp speed have relied on unknown energy sources that contradict the properties of mater.
This new study says we may not have to wait for that fictional fuel to be invented or discovered.
Mexican theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre devised his Alcubierre Drive in 1994, but the problem with his model was that it required “negative energy” to function – something that had never been observed in the real universe.
So, the authors of this study wanted to prove mathematically that exotic fuels aren’t required for warp drives to exist.
And according to their calculations, the warp drive could be constructed using “traditional and novel gravitational techniques to create a warp bubble that can transport objects at high speeds within the bounds of known physics.”
Study author Dr. Jared Fuchs explained their solution in a statement.
“The solution involves combining a stable matter shell with a shift vector distribution that closely matches well-known warp drive solutions such as the Alcubierre metric. In layman’s terms, we’ve shown that warp drives might not be relegated to science fiction.”
They’re not sure it could reach light speed, but it would come pretty close.
Basically, the plan involves engineering warp drives to “gravitate like ordinary matter,” which author Dr.Christpher Helmerich says would eliminate the need for dark energy that doesn’t exist.
“Although such a design would still require a considerable amount of energy, it demonstrates that warp effects can be achieved without exotic forms of matter. These findings pave the way for future reductions in warp drive energy requirements.”
So yeah, it seems as if it might actually be possible.
It might be a while before we reach Star Trek levels of warp speed, though.
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