A warp in the dark
August 12th 2008 06:43
Image: c0d3m0nk3y.com
The first of an occasional series which will attempt to explain in layman's terms some of the weird and wonderful stuff that scientists do.
We just got closer to being able to travel faster than the speed of light. Closer doesn't actually mean close, but it's a step in the right direction.
We have taken at least two significant steps towards achieving superluminary speed since Albert Einstein ruled, more than 100 years ago, that it was impossible. And the wonderfully weird thing about these steps is that they are suggesting a way to buckle up and zoom around the universe, arriving before you have had time to open your newspaper, all without proving Einstein wrong.
The answer is a warp drive, to borrow the term popularised by Star Trek. Given Einstein's assertion that a conventional engine can never get us there, no matter how many cylinders or turbochargers you bolt on to it, science fiction has long used the warp drive as the only practical way to star hop.
A space journey powered by warp drive would theoretically go something like this. You enter the spacecraft cabin, you find your seat and sit down, the warp drive goes ding, you stand up and you exit the spacecraft cabin at your destination. No point in providing peanuts - you won't have had time to eat them. Not much need for toilets either.
It sounds fanciful - pure science fiction - and so it was until 1994 when Dr Michael Alcubierre, a physicist at the University of Wales, took a significant step towards lifting superluminary travel out of the world of fantasy and planting it in the world of theoretical possibility.
The Alcubierre drive, as it has become known, involves messing around with what Einstein termed "spacetime". This is the place where the three spatial dimensions of length, width and depth meet the fourth dimension, time. In 1905, Einstein said that spacetime is not inert - it can be twisted and distorted by concentrations of energy. In 1994, Alcubierre said this twisting and distorting might be used to create a warp drive effect.
Alcubierre suggested that it might be possible to travel faster than the speed of light by contracting spacetime in front of a spaceship and expanding spacetime behind it. Now it gets fun - the result, if you get it right, would be that the spaceship would go nowhere at all, but the spacetime outside the ship would flash past your window. If the physical mass of the spaceship is not moving, it is not breaking Einstein's edict that nothing with mass can travel faster than the speed of light. But if spacetime around it is being manipulated, the ship can theoretically find itself anywhere in no time.
Now all we need to fuel the warp drive, says Dr Alcubierre, is some exotic matter, and the trouble here is that no-one knows where to find it, or indeed if it even exists. Exotic matter is stuff with negative energy density. Most things, such as the earth and the moon, for example, have positive energy density, and as such attract each other. Something with negative energy density, however, would repel something with positive energy density.
It could also be used to kickstart a warp drive.
Not having sacks full of exotic matter stored in his garden shed, Alcubierre said he was happy to have given us a theoretical spaceship slipping through theoretical cracks in time and space, but he now had real work to do and left it at that.
What they have done is introduce the 11th dimension to the story, thereby begging the question: where did all these dimensions come from?
I have the answer, praise Google - the 11th dimension is one of the higher dimensions predicted by string theory. The 11th involves a theoretical construct of m-theory, an offspring of string theory, and Cleaver and Obousy have proposed a way to manipulate it to create a timespace bubble, down which the spaceship would surf.
What they don't know yet is just how the 11th dimension would be expanded and shrunk. "These calculations are based on some arbitrary advance in technology or some alien technology that would let us manipulate the extra dimension," Dr Cleaver said.
So our current leaders in the field have got their fingers crossed for help from aliens? This seems a strong indicator of just how far we have to go before we see a functioning warp drive.
What they do know is the amount of energy that would be necessary - about 10 to the power of 45 joules. How much is that? As Dr Cleaver explained, "That's about the amount of energy you'd get if you converted the entire mass of Jupiter into pure energy via E = mc squared."
As you may have guessed, that's far beyond anything we can currently achieve, and the warp drive just got even further away. But, hey, one step at a time.
Sources: islandone.org, abc.net.au, physicsforums.com, wikipedia.org
| 58 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Add To: 
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
Health Focus
Poetry Lighthouse
MS Paint Art
Comment by Chris Champion
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
NewlyOld
The Blog of Lists
I think your comment appeared slightly before I actually posted the above, so clearly the human body is the fastest. But I know no more than that. Perhaps you could elaborate?
Regards,
Chris
Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
Health Focus
Poetry Lighthouse
MS Paint Art
I look forward to your serious and accurate reply.
Comment by Chris Champion
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
NewlyOld
The Blog of Lists
Comment by TimmyH
Tech News
Can you HACK it?
Genyration
Comment by Chris Champion
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
NewlyOld
The Blog of Lists
Tucked away in dark corners of major newspaper editorial rooms are science writers and medical writers and religion writers and the like who often make a long career reporting issues in their area and become, in the process, informed and influential voices. The media works well when it works well
Regards,
Chris