- 7 hours ago
Scientists say a real warp drive may no longer be pure science fiction, thanks to new breakthroughs in theoretical physics. Recent studies suggest space itself could be compressed and expanded, allowing faster-than-light travel without breaking known laws of physics. Unlike sci-fi engines, this concept wouldn’t move a ship through space - it would move space around the ship. Researchers are now exploring how energy, gravity, and exotic matter could make this possible. In this video, we explain how a warp drive could work and how close science really is. Credit:
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi / Lucasfilm https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/companycredits/?ref_=tt_dt_cmpy
Star Trek Beyond / Paramount Pictures https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2660888/companycredits/?ref_=tt_dt_cmpy
Lost in Space / New Line Cinema https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120738/companycredits/?ref_=tt_dt_cmpy
Parker Solar Probe touches the Sun: By NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ben Smith - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14036, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parker_Solar_Probe_touches_the_Sun.webm
Parker Solar Probe: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - Johns Hopkins University/APL/Betsy Congdon, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Yanping Guo, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/John Wirzburger, NASA/Nicola Fox, NASA/Kelly Korreck, Johns Hopkins University/APL/Nour Raouafi, NASA/Joseph Westlake, eMITS/Joy Ng, eMITS/Beth Anthony, eMITS/Lacey Young, ADNET Systems, Inc./Aaron E. Lepsch - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14741, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parker_Solar_Probe-_Humanity%E2%80%99s_Closest_Encounter_with_the_Sun_(SVS14741_PSP_Perihelion_YT).webm
Parker Solar Probe: By NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben - http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Images.php, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69306218
Vertical Testbed Rocket: By NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center - https://www.nasa.gov/armstrong/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Precision_Landing_Technologies_Completes_I[…]cket_(AFRC-2017-11349-1_Masten-COBALT-UnTetheredFLT1).webm
Interstellar / Paramount Pictures
Stargate / Canal+
CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/:
Alcubierre: By AllenMcC., https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3864854
Miguel alcubierre: By Jpablo.romero, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15721793
Water wave analogue of Casimir effect: By Denysbondar, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Water_wave_analogue_of_Casimir_effect.ogv
Casimir plates: By Emok, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4275811
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0:
Proxima Centauri b: By ESO/Konstantino Polizois/Nico Bartmann - http://www.eso.org/public/unitedkingdom/videos/konstantino_polizois/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Proxima_Centauri_b.webm
WARP Reactor Concept Movie: By WarpingSpacetime, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WARP_Reactor_Concept_Movie.ogg
Ag Micromirrors: By Simpik, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ag_Micromirrors_in_solution_plasmonics_Casimir_effect_Brownian_motion.webm
Animation is created by Bright Side.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi / Lucasfilm https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/companycredits/?ref_=tt_dt_cmpy
Star Trek Beyond / Paramount Pictures https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2660888/companycredits/?ref_=tt_dt_cmpy
Lost in Space / New Line Cinema https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120738/companycredits/?ref_=tt_dt_cmpy
Parker Solar Probe touches the Sun: By NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ben Smith - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14036, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parker_Solar_Probe_touches_the_Sun.webm
Parker Solar Probe: By NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - Johns Hopkins University/APL/Betsy Congdon, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Yanping Guo, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/John Wirzburger, NASA/Nicola Fox, NASA/Kelly Korreck, Johns Hopkins University/APL/Nour Raouafi, NASA/Joseph Westlake, eMITS/Joy Ng, eMITS/Beth Anthony, eMITS/Lacey Young, ADNET Systems, Inc./Aaron E. Lepsch - https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14741, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parker_Solar_Probe-_Humanity%E2%80%99s_Closest_Encounter_with_the_Sun_(SVS14741_PSP_Perihelion_YT).webm
Parker Solar Probe: By NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben - http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Images.php, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69306218
Vertical Testbed Rocket: By NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center - https://www.nasa.gov/armstrong/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Precision_Landing_Technologies_Completes_I[…]cket_(AFRC-2017-11349-1_Masten-COBALT-UnTetheredFLT1).webm
Interstellar / Paramount Pictures
Stargate / Canal+
CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/:
Alcubierre: By AllenMcC., https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3864854
Miguel alcubierre: By Jpablo.romero, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15721793
Water wave analogue of Casimir effect: By Denysbondar, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Water_wave_analogue_of_Casimir_effect.ogv
Casimir plates: By Emok, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4275811
CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0:
Proxima Centauri b: By ESO/Konstantino Polizois/Nico Bartmann - http://www.eso.org/public/unitedkingdom/videos/konstantino_polizois/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Proxima_Centauri_b.webm
WARP Reactor Concept Movie: By WarpingSpacetime, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WARP_Reactor_Concept_Movie.ogg
Ag Micromirrors: By Simpik, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ag_Micromirrors_in_solution_plasmonics_Casimir_effect_Brownian_motion.webm
Animation is created by Bright Side.
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FunTranscript
00:00We probably won't be able to travel between stars if we play fair, and by playing fair, I mean following the laws of physics the way we currently see them.
00:10Playing unfair means using cheat codes. The big question is, do those cheat codes actually exist?
00:17Well, sorta. One of them is called a warp drive, a technology capable of interstellar travel.
00:24But how does it work? Let's find out.
00:27The first thing we need to understand is why a really fast spaceship isn't enough.
00:33Why can't we just build the ultimate engine, point the ship at another star, and go?
00:38The answer is distance. Space is too big.
00:44Right now, the fastest object ever created by humans is NASA's Parker Solar Probe.
00:49It was designed to fly extremely close to the sun to study it.
00:53This probe uses gravity from Venus combined with continuous acceleration through the vacuum of space, which helped Parker reach a speed of about 430 miles per hour.
01:04But Parker is tiny, pilotless, and doesn't have to arrive anywhere.
01:10It just collects data and sends it back to Earth.
01:13And even at that speed, it's completely useless for interstellar travel.
01:17Compared to the speed of light, Parker is so slow that it's basically standing still.
01:23Light travels at about 669 million miles per hour.
01:27Now, let's talk about the nearest star.
01:31Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our solar system, and it's about 4.2 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus.
01:40That means that even if we could somehow travel at the speed of light, it would still take more than 4 years to get there.
01:48Unfortunately, it's impossible.
01:50But why can't we go that fast?
01:52Why can't we reach Proxima Centauri in a year or even a month?
01:56The problem isn't engineering.
01:59It's energy.
02:01Any object with mass requires energy to accelerate.
02:05Think of a car.
02:07A 200-horsepower engine has a speed limit.
02:10If you want to go faster, you need more horsepower, more fuel, more energy.
02:15Physics lets us calculate exactly how much energy an object needs to reach high speed,
02:21factoring in mass, resistance, and distance.
02:24And here's the key point.
02:26As speed increases, energy requirements increase too.
02:31But when you approach the speed of light, the math stops behaving normally.
02:35The equations tell us that to actually reach light speed, you would need infinite energy.
02:42And this amount simply doesn't exist.
02:45That's why anything with mass can never reach or exceed the speed of light.
02:49If we play fair, interstellar travel is basically impossible.
02:54Yes, in theory, we could build a gigantic ship and send it drifting through space for tens of thousands of years.
03:02But that's dangerous, but that's dangerous, expensive, and wildly impractical.
03:06Which is why physicists started looking for cheat codes.
03:10One of those is the warp drive.
03:12It doesn't move a ship through space faster than light.
03:16Instead, it moves space itself.
03:18The idea was first proposed in 1994 by physicist Miguel Acubierre.
03:24His solution showed that mathematically, we could distort space-time in a very specific way by creating a bubble around a spacecraft.
03:34Space-time in front of the ship contracts, space-time behind it expands, and the ship sits calmly in the middle.
03:42From the ship's perspective, it's not moving faster than light at all.
03:46But from the outside, the bubble crosses enormous distances in very little time.
03:52If that sounds confusing, think about pulling a tablecloth off a table.
03:57If you do it fast enough, the dishes on the table don't move.
04:01So the dishes are the spaceship.
04:03The tablecloth is space-time.
04:06The table is a spot in another galaxy we want to get to.
04:09The ship doesn't slide across space.
04:11Space slides under the ship.
04:14Or imagine standing still on a moving escalator.
04:18Suddenly, you jump and hold on to a crossbar on the ceiling.
04:22The escalator is moving under your feet when you jump off and land on a different step.
04:27The step that was far away from you before your jump.
04:30The escalator space was moving while you were holding the crossbar.
04:34So, the warp drive works on the same idea.
04:37Inside the bubble, passengers wouldn't feel extreme acceleration.
04:41Outside the bubble, space-time itself would be distorted.
04:45Sounds good, but there's a problem.
04:47Negative energy isn't just less energy.
04:53It's energy that behaves oppositely to normal energy.
04:57To understand it, we need to talk about something called the Casimir effect.
05:03You have two metal plates facing each other in a vacuum.
05:06They aren't charged, but they are conductive.
05:09There's no visible force acting on them, and yet, a negative force pulls the plates toward one another.
05:15What does that mean?
05:17The plates are in a vacuum.
05:19Nothing is pushing them together.
05:21There's no classical energy involved.
05:24The plates are completely inert.
05:26But between them, quantum fluctuations create pressure that slowly forces the plates closer together.
05:32Let's not dive too deep into quantum physics and melt our brains.
05:37The important thing to understand is this.
05:40The pressure acting on the plates is not created by ordinary energy, but by negative energy.
05:46And more than that, it acts on space itself.
05:49Once again, normal energy makes objects move through a vacuum.
05:54Negative energy makes the vacuum itself compress.
05:59The Casimir effect proves that negative energy exists, but only in microscopic amounts.
06:05We can measure it, but we can't store it, scale it up, or control it in any useful way.
06:12For a warp drive, we would need unimaginable quantities of negative energy.
06:16Enough to compress and stretch space-time around an entire spaceship.
06:22And right now, we have no idea how to generate that much negative energy, or whether it's even possible.
06:29That's why the warp drive working on negative energy is impossible.
06:34But why have scientists recently said interstellar travel might happen?
06:38Because scientists proposed a warp drive model that doesn't require negative energy at all.
06:44Using extremely complex mathematics, researchers showed that it might be possible to create a warp-like effect
06:51using only ordinary, positive energy and the usual laws of physics.
06:57Here's a simple analogy.
06:59Imagine you need to lift a house using a crane that weighs a billion tons.
07:03That's the classic warp drive with negative energy.
07:06Theoretically possible, but completely unrealistic.
07:09The new idea is more like shifting the house using an incredibly complex system of pulleys, supports, and leverage
07:17instead of the billion-ton crane.
07:21This new warp drive concept exists only on paper.
07:25The technology required to control space-time with that level of precision
07:29is far beyond anything we can currently build.
07:32It may take decades.
07:33It may take centuries.
07:35Or it may turn out to be impractical after all.
07:39At the moment, the most realistic way to travel between stars is to board a massive spacecraft
07:45powered by a thermonuclear engine, capable of accelerating to incredible speeds.
07:51Yes, the journey would take a very long time, hundreds of years.
07:55But by then, human lifespans may be much longer.
07:59On top of that, we could use cryogenic capsules.
08:02You get on the ship, fall asleep in a pod, and wake up thousands of years later in another
08:09star system.
08:10It's possible that during that time, scientists back on Earth have invented a warp drive or
08:15some entirely new technology.
08:18Even so, this approach is still extremely dangerous.
08:22What happens during the journey?
08:24What if the ship breaks down or the destination planet turns out to be uninhabitable?
08:28Of course, all of these risks would have to be carefully calculated in advance.
08:34Another way of such travel you've probably seen in the Interstellar movie.
08:39Remember how the characters flew to another galaxy?
08:43They entered a wormhole.
08:44A tunnel connecting two points on opposite sides of the universe.
08:49Waiting around and hoping that a wormhole will just appear somewhere isn't exactly a great plan.
08:55Trying to invent such a tunnel ourselves?
08:57Maybe.
08:58In a few hundred years, technologies like that might exist.
09:02In any case, all this will not come home soon.
09:06But for now, let's enjoy traveling not between the stars, but between cities, countries, and
09:11continents.
09:13Fortunately, we have reliable technologies for such trips.
09:17That's it for today.
09:18So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
09:23friends.
09:23Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
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