/sci/ - Science & Math

>billions of stars
>billions of galaxies

>we'll never encounter them in our lifetime

JUST

Warp-drive is an idea that takes its name from the sci-fi FTL drive from Star Trek. (While we usually call it warp, in reality it is actually referred to as a "space-time bubble." ) The idea is to use a loop-hole in Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, which is that while an object cant travel faster than light, the space around it can be altered so that it "moves." If the space in front of an object is contracted and the space behind it is expanded, theoretically it should be able to change its location in space without ever actually moving. We can say that this isn't impossible because the theory of relativity says that space is dynamic, but the only thing that could possibly move space in such a way is negative energy.

While negative energy is mostly speculative, it's proven that it could do all sorts of wonders: time travel, wormholes, destroy black holes, and create warp fields. The biggest difficulty we have with creating warp-drive (and all these other things) is obtaining or creating enough negative energy. In the case of warp drive, you'd need enough negative energy to create a stable field.

Does /sci/ want to speculate on how to gather, attract, or create negative energy without destroying it? Also general warp-speed thread because it's interesting.