As space travel garners more attention scientists research teams and agencies are constantly
searching for ways to improve technology and build fast and efficient spacecraft that can
ferry people beyond planet earth but if there is one big thing that we still have to figure out
it is beating the speed of light in a surprising turn of events a scientist and his team may have
actually found a key element that could bring us closer to doing just that the warp drive
pioneer and former nasa scientist Dr Harold Sunny White has now reported the discovery of an actual
real-world warp bubble welcome the Factnomenal and in today's video we will be taking a closer
look at this exciting new discovery and what it could possibly mean for the future of space travel
the term warp bubble was first coined in the year 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre
warp bubbles are quite a complicated notion involving a ton of math but in simple words it
can be defined as a detached region of space-time which theoretically at least is capable of moving
faster than the speed of light it is that bit of space that's contracted in the front and expanded
in the back it is this contraction and expansion that in theory actually pushes the bubble
including its contents forward at faster than light speed not to mention it's able to do all
of this without violating the laws of physics think of it as moving through the cosmos while
surfing a bubble of condensed space so what makes warp bubbles so important first and foremost they
eliminate one of the most important problems when it comes to light speed travel and that is
time dilation so say for example we succeeded building a spacecraft that is actually able to
travel at the speed of light everything that is outside of your spacecraft would speed up as well
so while it may have only taken you a couple of hours to reach your favorite planet it could have
equated to years of time passing on earth the current known laws of physics at least will give
you this outcome so if you're planning a trip at light speed into space it's going to be way longer
outside of the craft than you actually think this is where warp bubbles are able to get around
this problem because the space inside the said bubble remains unaffected it would be possible
to actually take what should have been a 40 light year journey and shorten it and make it as though
it were only a 0.5 light year journey which would mean that you could go on this journey into space
and upon returning safely back to earth everything you know would have only aged a couple of years
for a long time warp bubbles were considered to be mere science fiction up until Alcubierre came
along and theorized his Alcubierre warp drive which maintained general relativity while also
allowing for faster than light travel he made waves in the physics community when he first
published his findings on the possibilities of warping interstellar space theoretically at least
he was the first to make the bold proposal that it was possible to actually manipulate the fabric
of space itself in order to travel faster than light by expanding space behind the starship
and contracting the space in front of it thus reducing any intervening gaps between planets
stars and more the idea created quite the buzz and was immediately called far-fetched
and unrealistic by many the math used for the scene was relatively sound but it still posed a
wide variety of problems the amount of energy that would be required for something like this to even
be possible at least for now doesn't exist fast forward to the year 2012 when Dr White who was
then working for nasa published his own paper with suggested changes to the original math
and shape of the craft by Alcubierre which brought the energy required much lower
the development of an actual warp bubble of warp drive has since only been mentioned through the
years but with no more important contributions when Alcubierre first put in his original paper
there was something fundamental that hadn't yet been realized the fact that the default
amount of energy in space isn't just zero but rather some positive non-zero finite value
keeping in mind that there is a finite amount of energy to the very fabric of space itself
it's important to note the famous calculation that was made way back in 1940
back in the early days of quantum field theory Hendra Casimir made a very valuable contribution
the Casimir Effect as we call it that has rather remarkable implications electromagnetic fields
exist everywhere in space and they cannot be removed but he envisioned two parallel conducting
plates for example as a result of which the energy inherent to the space outside the plates would be
slightly greater than the energy inside causing them to attract this is significant because it
does tie in with the fact that though this effect is not the same as a warp bubble in principle it
could be used to warp space in the negative fashion that would be needed to create one
now in 2021 Dr white and a team of researchers are conducting research funded by DARPA on objects
called Casimir cavities stemming from that very same Casimir effect as a part of the research the
team uses micron cake electrical conductors in a variety of shapes including pillars spheres plates
and other such cavities to generate electrical potentials of a couple hundred microvolts which
turned out to be exactly what previous experiments and many theorists ai predictions indicated
the Casimir effect refers to the attractive force of a fluctuating magnetic field
that tends to pull two objects like plates and mirrors as used in experiments
together when inside a vacuum it was at the time of studying and carrying out experimental research
that Dr white and his colleagues actually made a surprising discovery in a custom Casimir cavity
they noticed in their calculations something that looks suspiciously
like a warp bubble he and his team released a paper in July 2021 about what they are calling the
possible structure of the energy density present in a Casimir cavity they accidentally created a
microscopic experiment all while researching how energy is distributed around wavelengths
the experiment resulted in enough theoretical energy to achieve warp speed just like the
concept that was theorized by physicist Miguel Alcubierre the main reason his entire findings
were downplayed was due to the mathematical drawbacks and the amount of energy that was needed
but the latest DARPA funded research released by Dr white and his team actually indicates
that the energy requirements are far lesser than previously believed this of course is great news
and if they are proven right then white's team has possibly discovered the first warp bubble
and all this without even meaning to do so in his own words Dr white says
to my knowledge this is the first paper in the peer-reviewed literature that proposes a
real sizable nano structure that is predicted to manifest a real albeit humble warp bubble
he cautioned that this doesn't necessarily mean we are near building a fully functioning warp drive
but the detailed numerical analysis of the Casimir cavities helped the team identify a very real and
manufacturable nanostructure that is predicted to generate a negative vacuum energy density
that it would manifest a real nano scale warp bubble not just in theory but the real thing the
finding not only confirms the predicted toroidal structure and negative energy aspects of a war
bubble but has also given rise to pathways that he and other researchers can now use to follow
and design and perhaps one day even construct a real-world spaceship that will warp through time
to further evaluate the groundbreaking discovery the team has even come up with
a proposed design for a testable nano scale warp drive craft in the future
one thing's for sure when Dr white began his research project under DARPA the last thing he
expected was to stumble upon such a historical finding especially when it ties in so closely
with everything he has ever believed and the big claims he made in his warp drive proposal
whether by pure coincidence or personal destiny he and his team seem to be at the right place
at the right time and if proven it might change the future of space travel forever
the million dollar question though is this a real warp bubble the simple answer is
that it sure has the potential to be if it is experimentally validated and as always
not everyone seems entirely convinced by the idea seeing as no experiments or evidence can
be shown for the same and what lies in theory may not actually be possible in real life
also many are considering the fact that the findings come from the team led by
Dr white who is famous for his big bold claims which some say have yet to amount to anything
on the other hand some strongly agree that this new discovery is potentially groundbreaking and
with more in-depth study and experiments it could bring us closer to actually beating the speed of
light while it's easy to jump to conclusions and get excited dr white himself reminds us not to get
ahead of ourselves science is a slow and arduous process testing and experiments will need to be
carried out before any further plans can be made in his own words he rightly states that though
dreaming is important he personally emphasizes the importance of doing in-depth research and finding
new and additional applications that are practical dr white and his team plan on conducting many more
experiments in smaller models to better understand the opportunities of a prospective warp drive
but as of now they are said to be laser focused on the research around the Casimir cavities
so while some are already asking when we will be seeing scientists make something like this
actually fly Dr white's motto remains the same crawl walk run in short baby steps
only time will tell what the serendipitous discovery might mean for the future
but for the time being we know that it's a monumental step in the right direction what
are your thoughts on the discovery and do you think we will ever achieve faster than light
travel let us know in the comments don't forget to smash that like button subscribe to the channel
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