Einstein stated in his special theory of relativity that the speed light travels in a vacuum is the fastest any object can go in the universe. This universal speed limit has held true over the decades but scientists have updated Einstein’s theory to show that it might be possible to break the light speed barrier.
Einstein’s theory of special relativity has its basis in the work of Galileo Galilei. During his time The Father of Physics had proposed that all uniform motion is relative. This means that no object can be at an absolute state of rest because there will be another perspective from which the object can be viewed as moving. Galilelio’s work was expanded on greatly by Einstein. One of the conclusions that Einstein came to was that speed of light is the fastest anyone or anything can go.
A group of researchers from the University of Adelaide have now further extended Einstein’s work and have shown the theoretically it is possible to travel faster than light. The scientists have utilized all of the same work that Einstein used but have included a hypothetical infinite velocity to come to their conclusion. This is the most interesting aspect of their work because others have tried to show that faster than light travel is possible by using exotic physics or imaginary masses but the University of Adelaide took a straight forward route to solve the problem.
James Hill, a researcher that worked on the formulae, explains the recently published study by saying to Cosmos Magazine, “Essentially it sort of breaks the world up into two parts, we’ve got our Universe and then there is this place where everything is going faster than the speed of light and it could well be the key to understanding things like black holes and colliding galaxies.”
The hypothesis has not been tested yet unlike Einstein’s work, which has until now stood as a pilar of scientific understanding. The researchers still need to see if the theory stands up to detailed scrutiny form their peers, however the potential for the theory is great because it can help explain things in our universe that conventional physics have not yet cracked, such as dark energy and black holes.
Source: Gizmodo
Photo: Sunday Mercury
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