For 30 years, physicists have been considering the possibility of creating a unique propulsion system called a warp drive. However, it is not an engine in the usual sense of the word.
This hypothetical device could compress spacetime in front of a spacecraft, allowing it to fly faster than the speed of featherlight. It may sound like science fiction, but physicists believe that warp engines could theoretically exist, and someone could utilize them to propel themselves through space.
These could potentially be highly evolved aliens. The authors of the study published The Open Journal of Astrophysics presents a way to detect such an engine in space.
Warp drive is theorized to create a warp bubble around a spaceship. In reality, the ship itself isn't moving anywhere, but the bubble is, due to the compression of spacetime in front of the ship. This allows for faster-than-light speeds.
Theoretically, warp drive requires exotic matter and negative energy to operate. Opponents of the idea believe that such an engine cannot exist because it violates the known laws of physics.
On the other hand, even if it is possible to create a warp engine, it is not clear how to control it and deactivate the warp bubble once it reaches its destination.
The authors of the novel study believe that warp engines could theoretically exist and are already in utilize, and the consequences of stopping them can be predicted.
This means that the hypothetical device itself can be detected. Physicists have created simulations that reveal the possible effects of warp drives on spacetime.
Physicists believe that warp drive should release gravitational waves, or ripples, into the fabric of space-time that cause black holes or neutron stars to merge.
These waves can be detected by gravitational wave detectors on Earth, but more sensitive instruments need to be developed. Physicists say the necessary technology already exists.
So getting a unique gravity signal would mean that warp engines really do exist. Simulations have shown that when warp drives stop or leisurely down, a wave of negative energy is released, followed by waves of positive and negative energy.
This process leads to an escalate in overall energy and could be further evidence of warp drive, as the energy waves will interact with ordinary matter.
Humanity does not yet have the technologies to enable rapid manned flights to even the farthest corners of the solar system, let alone reach the nearest stars.
Even at the speed of featherlight, it would take a spacecraft at least 4 years to reach the nearest triple star system, Alpha Centauri. And by the way, as Focus already wrote, scientists have options for swift travel to this star system.
Therefore, in the case of interstellar travel, it is necessary to create technologies that will allow spaceships to fly at faster than featherlight speeds. In this case, the flight to the nearest stars will take months, not years.
But all of this remains just theoretical speculations of physicists or the basis of plots created by science fiction writers. Will warp drive ever be built? There is no exact answer. Does it even exist somewhere in space? Maybe.
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