Faster Than The Speed of Light! Traveling the Cosmos Is A Lot Closer Than You Think

The movies are one thing, but this is how science may actually get us there.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:04 Traveling at the speed of light would likely be crucial for traversing the cosmos.

00:07 After all, most vast distances in space are measured by light years.

00:11 But is there any real way for mankind to ever move that fast?

00:14 According to Einstein, not really.

00:16 But there could be hope.

00:17 His theory of relativity explains that as an object with mass gets closer and closer

00:21 to traveling at the speed of light, the more and more energy it would need to achieve it.

00:25 The math works out that you would need an infinite amount of energy to ever pass the

00:28 light speed threshold.

00:30 But again, that's for objects with mass.

00:32 ScienceAlert points out that theoretical tachyons, or particles with what is sometimes called

00:37 imaginary mass, are always traveling the speed of light.

00:40 These particles are theoretical, but they are also theoretically always going backwards

00:44 in space-time.

00:45 So, possibly good for time travel, but even if they're real, likely not going to help

00:49 us with space travel.

00:50 However, Einstein's theory of relativity does suggest the existence of wormholes is

00:54 possible, where we fly an object into one point in space and are deposited elsewhere,

00:59 possibly thousands, millions, or even billions of light years away.

01:02 Now we just have to find one.

01:04 (upbeat music)

01:06 (upbeat music)