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Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

Posted August 13, 2008 9:02 AM

From SPACE.com:

A space-time bubble could enable faster-than-light travel. Travel by bubble might seem more appropriate for witches in Oz, but two physicists suggest that a future spaceship could fold a space-time bubble around itself to travel faster than the speed of light. We're talking about the very distant future, of course. The idea involves manipulating dark energy - the mysterious force behind the universe's ongoing expansion - to propel a spaceship forward without breaking the laws of physics. "Think of it like a surfer riding a wave," said Gerald Cleaver, a physicist at Baylor University. "The ship would be pushed by the spatial bubble and the bubble would be traveling faster than the speed of light." In theory, the universe grew faster than the speed of light for a very short time after the Big Bang, driven by the dark energy that represents about 74 percent of the total mass-energy budget in the universe. Dark matter constitutes 22 percent of the budget, and normal matter (stars, planets and everything you see) makes up the remaining 4 percent or so. Strange as it sounds, current evidence supports the notion that the fabric of space-time can expand faster than the speed of light, because the reality in which light travels is itself expanding.

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Guru
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#1

Re: Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

08/13/2008 10:22 AM

This sounds oddly familiar somehow.

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#2
In reply to #1

Re: Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

08/13/2008 10:57 AM

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! star trek! How about photon torpedos and more importantly, TRANSPORTERS!

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#3
In reply to #2

Re: Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

08/13/2008 11:57 AM

A Transporter and 7 of 9 for the weekend: PRICELESS!

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#5
In reply to #3

Re: Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

08/13/2008 12:54 PM

I'm dying to know...why the transporter too?

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#6
In reply to #5

Re: Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

08/13/2008 12:58 PM

I don't know, something to play with when I get sick of her.

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#8
In reply to #6

Re: Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

08/13/2008 9:31 PM

Use your imagination man! Use it to beam the both of you to some exotic planet for a little whoopee making session!

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#9
In reply to #1

Re: Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

08/15/2008 7:27 AM

You must have a loooooonnnng memory if you can remember back to just after the Big Bang!

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#4

Re: Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

08/13/2008 12:34 PM

I'm sorry, but it's simply undignified to go flitting about the universe straddled atop a whopping great bubble. I will NOT tolerate being laughed at by some uncouth slimy creature from a world that probably never even heard of Harvard.

Besides, who thought up all this "dark" color scheme? Everyone knows red is the fastest color. All of my Lamborghinis are red, after all. Maybe if this bubble thing could be offered in some sporty colors it wouldn't sound so absurd.

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#7

Re: Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

08/13/2008 4:05 PM

"The shortest distance between two points is zero" - Event Horizon

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#10

Re: Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

08/16/2008 7:47 PM

FTL travel is certainly possible - but with present technology could never be proven.

The problem is that because light travel is the fastest method we presently know of, when something travels faster than light, relative to the observer, it does not exist, because there is no way of perceiving the object is there.

Einstein's Theory of Relativity points this out so simply, that each observer is entitled to assume that theirs is the fixed frame of reference.

But in practice, there is no true fixed frame of reference, which is why observers need to assume one.

Kind Regards....

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#11
In reply to #10

Re: Spaceship Could Fly Faster Than Light

08/18/2008 7:04 AM

Yep, assume the position!

An interesting theory is the possible existence of photon-like entities that cannot travel slower than c. Presumably if we were to find a way to observe them they would flash out of existence immediately, or perhaps something else would happen. Obviously nobody yet knows what...

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