NASA has clearly demonstrated how long an interstellar journey will actually take on the most advanced starship, the USS Enterprise.
Nothing – no material object-seems to be able to move faster than light in the space around us. At least in our universe. Albert Einstein, the brilliant physicist and author of the theory of relativity, was sure of this. He and all other physicists suggested that surpassing the speed of light-300 thousand kilometers per second-is not realistic. Both theoretically and practically. But despite the “authority”, some inventors still expect to achieve it someday, and others-so in general-to fly faster than light. To get to other worlds. But would such swift ships really be fast enough for such voyages? This question was asked by James O’Donoghue , a NASA planetary science specialist now working with the Japanese Space Agency JAXA. He answered it himself.
The scientist created several animations that clearly illustrated what it would look like to move a spacecraft moving at the speed of light and faster. Thus, he also showed how long it would take to travel to a particular planet or star system. As reported in his Twitter account, which is referenced by the ScienceAlert portal.
The resulting animations upset O’Donoghue. Because they made it clear that even superluminal spaceships were too slow.
Flying at the speed of light through the solar system was a good idea. It would take at least 3 minutes to get from Earth to Mars, and a maximum of 15 minutes. Depending on the relative position of our planets. Pluto is almost 6 hours away in summer. And to the nearest star to us — Proxima Centauri, which most likely has a planet suitable for life, “drag” more than 4 years.
And if you move faster than light with the help of the so-called warp Drive (Warp Drive), which bends space? For example, on a starship like the USS Enterprise from the science fiction series ” Star Trek: The Next Generation “(Star Trek: The Next Generation)? O’Donoghue also imagined this, giving the starship different speeds-up to one that exceeded the speed of light by more than 2 thousand times. It would have arrived in the Proxima Centauri area in about 18 hours. Which is perfectly acceptable. However, it would take 96 years to cross our Galaxy — the Milky Way. And at least 300 years to fly to the neighboring galaxy-the Andromeda Nebula. It’s been awfully long.
Maybe it will be possible to move faster through “wormholes” — such tunnels in the fabric of space-time, which connect the points of the Universe, distant from each other for huge distances? At least in theory they exist.
I would like to find at least one “hole”. Otherwise, you will not be able to reach other worlds in a reasonable time. O’Donoghue realized this and was disappointed.