If you suddenly see that one foot has a red sock, then you know instantly, faster than the speed of light, that the other sock is green. But this information is useless. You cannot send Morse code or usable information via red and green socks.
Negative matter. The most credible way of sending signals faster than light is via negative matter. You can do this either by:. You can calculate that this tidal wave travels faster than light if driven by negative matter an exotic form of matter which has never been seen. In summary, the only viable way of breaking the light barrier may be through General Relativity and the warping of space time.
However, it is not known if negative matter exists, and whether the wormhole will be stable. To solve the question of stability, you need a fully quantum theory of gravity, and the only such theory which can unite gravity with the quantum theory is string theory which is what I do for a living.
Instead, space and time can warp and bend. If you look at the equations which are at the core of Einstein's theories of relativity, you find that as you approach the speed of light, your spatial dimension in the forward direction shrinks down to nothing and your clock slows to a stop.
A reference frame with zero width and with no progression in time is really a reference frame that does not exist. Therefore, this tells us that nothing can ever go faster than the speed of light, for the simple reason that space and time do not actually exist beyond this point.
Because the concept of "speed" requires measuring a certain amount of distance traveled in space during a certain period of time, the concept of speed does not even physically exist beyond the speed of light. In fact, the phrase "faster than light" is physically meaningless.
You would also experience some strange visual consequences. One such consequence is called aberration , and it refers to how your whole field of view would shrink down to a tiny, tunnel-shaped "window" out in front of your spacecraft. This happens because photons those exceedingly tiny packets of light -- even photons behind you -- appear to come in from the forward direction. In addition, you would notice an extreme Doppler effect , which would cause light waves from stars in front of you to crowd together, making the objects appear blue.
Light waves from stars behind you would spread apart and appear red. The faster you go, the more extreme this phenomenon becomes until all visible light from stars in front of the spacecraft and stars to the rear become completely shifted out of the known visible spectrum the colors humans can see. When these stars move out of your perceptible wavelength, they simply appear to fade to black or vanish against the background.
Of course, if you want to travel faster than a speeding photon, you'll need more than the same rocket technology we've been using for decades. Perhaps pulling on blue tights and a red cape isn't such a far-fetched idea after all.
Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Science Vs. There is a lot more to this fascinating topic than this blog post can cover, so if you have any questions, comments, or concerns whatsoever, leave a comment, and I will do my best to address it!
The Open University: The Grandfather Paradox — Second Adventures in Thought A brief video introduction to the grandfather paradox and its troubling implications for backward time travel. Wikipedia: The Tachyonic Antitelephone A modest proposal for a way to send messages back in time.
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