Questions tagged [speed-of-light]

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Could time illusion be used to send a spacecraft faster than the speed of light?

In this article (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/hubble-spots-ultra-speedy-jet-blasting-from-star-crash) it says: The Hubble measurement showed the jet was moving at an apparent velocity ...
The Rocket fan's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
141 views

If the lights we receive from old galaxies are old, could we see ours if we were in those galaxies? [closed]

I am bit of an amateur in space and astronomy. As far as I understand the light that we receive from those galaxies is old, millions and billions of years old. A galaxy that is 100 million light years ...
Moudiz's user avatar
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-4 votes
1 answer
172 views

Could using magnetism principles aid us in achieve near speed of light travel

Could a vehicle with ferrous properties be passed threw a hollow tube, that had coils spaced out in intervals, and which produced strong magnetic field in the vacuum of space, create speeds close to ...
Dan W.'s user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
708 views

How much did we know about space in 1940? [closed]

I'm reading a thoroughly ridiculous book, Calling Captain Future. It was written as a pulp serial in the 1940's, and is set in a very futuristic 1990. In addition to its many rather entertaining ...
nuggethead's user avatar
19 votes
1 answer
3k views

Interstellar Travel Thought Experiment

I have been going over a bit of a thought experiment in my head lately. And wondering if someone more informed on the matter can share their thoughts Let's start with the premise that rocket/ ...
VapeLord86's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
123 views

How was it commanded to Ingenuity to fly to 10 ft and land again?

Since Mars is multiple light minutes away from Earth, Ingenuity can't be controlled remotely like any drone. Was there a command given to Ingenuity to at a certain time rise to 10 feet and then land ...
Giovanni's user avatar
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5 votes
0 answers
422 views

How do you "make" a soliton? (recent peer-reviewed theoretical work in FTL travel)

I've just read an Article on the new approach on Warp Drives Dr. Erik Lentz describes. Instead of creating a bubble with negative energy density, he describes a Soliton in spacetime, which he ...
Mat NX's user avatar
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1 answer
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How much anti-matter is needed for an anti-matter propelled rocket to reach $P$ % ($P\lt{100}$) of the speed of light (c)?

I think this is a tough one. Imagine a rocket is produced which is propelled by a matter-anti-matter device. Its sole purpose is to reach high velocity. Which means the mass can be kept low, say $m$ ...
Deschele Schilder's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
4k 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 ...
Zamaree Riales's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
620 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 ...
Daniel's user avatar
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2 answers
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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 ...
Sean Paul's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
2k 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 ...
Arphaxad's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
140 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)?
Danish 's user avatar
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1 answer
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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 ...
Pablo's user avatar
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3 votes
3 answers
2k 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 ...
David's user avatar
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1 answer
257 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 ...
math's user avatar
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7 votes
0 answers
159 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 ...
math's user avatar
  • 209
0 votes
2 answers
118 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 ...
Leo Pan's user avatar
  • 201
4 votes
1 answer
950 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 ?
Taher's user avatar
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