Warp Speed, Hyperspace and Wormholes
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When Fast Just Aint Good Enough
It's an understatement to say that the universe is big. It's huge! It's huger than huge — it's GARGANTUAN!!!!! Dang it, even that strong adjective in bold caps followed by multiple exclamation points is not able to describe the ginormousness of space. The fact is, there are no words in human language to truly capture the enormity of the universe. "Infinite" is the closest but it just sounds so meager.
So, when you face the facts that it takes over four years traveling at light speed just to get to the nearest star from our Sun, you have to ask:
How in the heck is mankind gonna go anywhere when, according to physics, the fastest anything can go is the speed of light?
I don't know about you, but I would like to be alive and kicking when I reach the planetary satellites of Vega to wade through the lovely methane seas (hypothetical) while gazing at the Vegan rings 25 light years away from home.
Well, it may be impossible to travel faster than the speed of light but fret not my future intergalactic friends; in the limiting laws of physics there are loop holes, or should I say.....wormholes.
Read on, together we will step through the looking glass and discover the secrets of the universe.
Schwarzschild Metric
See all those pretty numbers and symbols up there? That has something do do with wormholes but I have absolutely no idea what they mean!
Why do they have to make theoretical astrophysics on hypothetical astronomical objects so darn complicated?
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Wormhole 101
Get a piece of paper. Got it? Good. Draw a dot on each end of that piece of paper. Label one dot "Point A" and the other "Point B". Now, what is the fastest way to get from "Point A" to "Point B"? Common sense and the old adage says "a straight line", but that is not the case.
Fold that piece of paper in half so that "Point A" and "Point B" touch each other. That is the fastest way from "Point A" to "Point B". That is Wormhole 101!
Basically, a wormhole is a distortion in space (natural or man-made) that connects two points of space or time.
Warp Speed and Hyperspace
I gotta tell ya, I am having a hard time finding on the Internet a simple way to define this. So I will define warp speed and hyperspace the way I understand them. If I am wrong, then I am sure I will hear about it!
Basically, warp speed and hyperspace are manual ways to distort the space around a ship. This theoretical mode of transportation shrinks the space in front of the ship while expanding the space behind it, thus propelling the ship to a distant point in the universe using the very space around said ship.
So, the way this works is that the space in front of the ship almost disappears and the space behind it expands. The disappearing front allows for less space for the ship to travel while at the same time the expanding space behind the ship propel the ship to the destination point. This uses two methods of transport simultaneously.
I think my brain just exploded!
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Comments
Haven't seen that in years.
your brain exploded..I distinctly heard a pop...now I have a nose bleed.
It is quite mind-numbing, this whole space-time continuum thing!
mmmm... Interesting I just learned something intergalactic, please do a follow up hub as this is quite intriguing.:)
What are all those unapproved comments about?
Anyway, nice hub. I think light space travel is more plausible than time travel. But don't give weight to what i just said, I majored in art. But I can draw you a wormhole if you want! :D
AEvans: this was a follow up of my Time Travel hub.
LOL...long story Cris!
Uh, what?
My brain exploded too, I'll post something better after I get the mighty putty on the job...
:p
whelp...have you seen down the rabbit hole and the secret?
Yes, I think I have.
you would know if you saw them...i think anyway. that stuff will break your mind. I love this Hub...shit just baffles me...I understand most of the theories and stuff, but it blows my mind...traveling at the speed of light will cause you to see only certain colors as you reach that colors wave length or the speed at which said color travels.
Yeah, I know what you mean about the Universe! It is, like, HUMONGOUS!!! But the only problem with wormholes, according to my deep scientific understanding of them, is that if you go in one, you come out thinner than a pieceof linguini on the other side. That could pose problems.
Suzanne: I am no expert but I think you are thinking of black holes. Wormholes do not effect the traveler. At least I think so! It's all so confusing!!! A lot is theoretical, so it's okay to be wrong. ;-) I think Black Holes will be my next astronomy hub. I will explore further.
I am not very happy with this hub. The appetizer is bigger than the meal! I got lazy at the end. My brain hurt! Maybe I will add a few things at the end.
BTW - late comment on a comment....Amy, does that Mighty Putty work as well as in the ads?
Have you watched the movie "TIMELINE" with Paul Walker? I just got that DVD last week... LOVE IT!
And it's very close to what you speak of here, as a "wormhole"...
I, myself, personally think that "black holes" are "wormholes" to other "PORTALS, or other times... Just my theory...
Never seen the movie. I'll check it out.
Interesting. This hub would useful reference material. Thanks.
You're welcome.
Excellent stuff. I saw a very interesting documentary on Sky some months back that scientifically went into exactly the theory of "folding" space/time to enable very long distance travel very fast. Fascinating, and sounded very theoretically possible.
Thank you MH! I dig the deep stuff!!!
imadork
interesting hub.
It is amazing that we on Earth can from our Solar System view and report on about 100 billion galaxies. We use blue and red to tell us what direction these little lights in the sky are going. We describe black holes and dying stars all from the comfort of our planet as it moves a few inches in the universe.
We start about 13.7 billion years ago with the Big Bang and we notice that after all that time the universe is expanding. We do this all with the lights in the sky and what doesn't light up we give names like black holes.
We invent physics to explain the unexplainable and we periodically add or change stuff to fit the new theory. Even philosophers and scientists several hundred years ago did a fair job of guessing even before they could verify it.
While there are names for the values of numbers with the power of 10, these numbers are so large we talk about them in groups of millions. 1 to the 24th power would be million,million,million,million. It is totally meaningless to the average person. The number is so large that you couldn't count it by ones during your lifetime or the lifetime since the first humans existed here.
Teleportation would allow you or at least the digitized you to travel at light speed but the problem is getting the destination device in place first. Then there is the problem of only going in a straight line and watch out for the black holes. It is what you can't see that hurts you. :)
Thanks for the adventure
good
No...GRRRRRREAT!!!
I see you have been moderating again. :D Pretty damn good.
Thanks Pest! I go in spurts, is that too personal?
I watched this guy on the Science channel explain this theory of wormholes and I think my brain exploded too. I just don't understand, but that's typical of me. Oh yea, there was some stuff about time travel too. heres the link.
Thanks for the link. I love Michio Kaku!
he makes my brain hurt, but yea, he seems to know alot of stuff.
He knows almost as much as me.
LOL, but you don't make my brain hurt.
Cuz I am smart enough to take complex subjects and simplifying them so that everyone can understand.
Excellent hub - It was like a mind meld with Dr. Who and Michio Kaku all in one! Thanks!
Thank you Susan.
Imadork, you did make it simple, and linked it real good! Top hub, I had fun trying to get both brain cells working at the same time to read this one.
Great hub. I hope they find a way to cut through time, though many people think it's impossible. Then again, people in the 1800s would have thought the advent of the internet a crazy and impossible idea.
The "wormhole" theory was used in Event Horizon...and the ship went to hell. No thanks
Fascinating! I've actually sat and tried to fathom - in my pea brain - the true vastness of all the cosmos. It's literally dizzying!
I love it when science says it's impossible to go any faster than the speed of light. This from a group who, not too long ago, believed not only was the Earth flat but the center of the universe.
Excelling the speed of light will continue to be "impossible" until we - or somebody else - figure how to do it.
Fun stuff, ... and I really like your name.
It is a good thing that you did not post the entire formula here. That could have warped space and you hub would have been posted on the outer nebula's of some distant place.
goldentoad says:
9 months ago
Did you just finish watchin' Contact again?