Questions tagged [speed-of-light]
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11
questions
20
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3answers
3k views
Is there any way that real stars would move like they do in the classic Windows 3.x screensaver if traveling through space at extreme speed?
In old versions of Windows, such as 3.1, there was this screensaver called "Starfield". It looked like this:
However, in movies and TV series, it usually looks like ...
3
votes
2answers
469 views
About non-FTL travel and realitivistic effect for a hard sci fi novel
I’m planning a hard science fiction novel, thus there is no Faster-Than-Light travel, but I do present the existence of a means of transportation that is close to the speed of light. For example, it ...
1
vote
2answers
149 views
Perception @ light speed
My question is about what a human would perceive when travelling at the speed of light. Presume that we figure out a way of propulsion and our craft has no mass etc.
Would time for the occupants of ...
1
vote
1answer
370 views
During interstellar travel, does time dilation make the trip shorter?
If it is 4.2 light years to the Alpha Centauri system, does the trip there take less time the closer you get to the speed of light?
When considering time dilation, if we traveled at the speed of ...
1
vote
1answer
132 views
Looking out the window of a subluminal spaceship, what would be the sight?
How would a star sky look for the observer flying on a subluminal spaceship (i.e., with the velocity close to the velocity of light)?
0
votes
1answer
89 views
Could Breakthrough Starshot proposed propulsion system be used in a regular size probe to accelerate it faster than any probe has been before?
Supposedly Breakthrough Starshot project wants to accelerate a capsule of the size of a mobile phone - according to one source - and of the size of the chip of a mobile phone - according to another ...
3
votes
3answers
579 views
Overcoming the speed of light thanks to ion thrusters
I am wondering if I could build an ion thruster, that is capable of exit velocity bigger that the speed of light. If I start with the equation for calculating exit velocity $v_e$ of a particle of ...
0
votes
1answer
160 views
Is the universe already colonized or are the Drake equation coefficients a much stronger filter: what are the cosmology issues with this paper?
This paper posits a path to colonizing/probing the universe with lightweight (30g) or heavyweight (500t) probes based on 3 propulsion methods (fission, fusion, antimatter) by mining a planet like ...
7
votes
0answers
150 views
What percentage of the universe's galaxies are within our reply-lightcone before they're Hubble-flow expanded away too far to reply? [duplicate]
Because of the Hubble constant, how far can we now send a signal and still be in range to hear an immediately-issued (the moment they receive a signal) reply? And what percentage of today's visible ...
0
votes
2answers
105 views
Time when traveling around the speed of light [closed]
I heard that if you travel at the speed of light or faster (say, to the Kelper systems ) and come back, thousands of years may have passed but you haven't experienced more than a few. How is this ...
4
votes
1answer
875 views
Have we done any research trying to reach the speed of light? [closed]
Have we tried in the past to run tests or do research to reach the speed of light ?
