For centuries it appeared that no object could travel faster than the speed of light. In Einsteins general theory of relativity, space-time is very much like a fabric, it can be stretched and shrunk. Under special circumstances, the fabric may even stretch faster than the speed of light. According to Einsteins theory, there are two ways in which travelling faster than light may be acceptable.
The first idea is Stretching Space. If you were able to stretch the space behind you and contract the space in front of you, the illusion of having moved faster than the speed of light would be created. In reality, you would not have moved at all, but since space has been deformed, you could reach distant stars in the blink of an eye.
The second idea is Ripping Space. The concept deals with the idea of wormholes. Einstein took a sheet of paper and noticed that the shortest distance from corner to corner is a straight line, but, when he curled the paper so that the corners were practically touching, the shortest distance was a wormhole between the two points.
Theoretically wormholes, if proved to be existent could transform our entire universe, eventually converting it into a living cosmopolitan. Ripping space is an idea that will have trouble getting off the ground. To keep a wormhole open so that a human shuttle could pass through would require particles called negative matter that has yet, to this date, been discovered. It is almost impossible to find because unlike normal matter which is pulled into planets by gravity, negative matter is repelled by planets and stars into deep space. Along with the difficulty of finding it comes the quantity that would be required to keep the wormhole open long enough; negative matter the mass of Jupiter would be the key ingredient. So back to stretching space we go. A physicist by the name of Miguel Alcubierre, using Einsteins theory of gravity has developed a propulsion system similar to that found on the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars. Alcubierre speculates that has starship would resemble the voyage of this fictional starship Hans Solo and Luke Skywalker would travel on. If we looked out the front of the ship, the stars would become long lines, but, if we looked out the back, we would only see pitch black because the light from the stars behind the ship would not be able to catch up to the starships velocity.
In essence travelling faster than the speed of light is very much possible because it does not violate the theory of relativity and finds a loophole in Einsteins theory of light. Although travelling at such high speeds are thousands of years into future technology, we can still look forward to future mankind being able to travel across the universe.
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