02.24.10 By: John Gholson
Ever wonder how the Starship Enterprise is able to travel at light-speed through unexplored cosmos? Well, it doesn't. It's not real. Star Trek is fictional. BUT...If it were real, it still wouldn't be able to.
You can read all about the science behind it on NewScientist, but basically anyone that attempted warp speed travel will burn up with radiation exactly one second into a sub-light trip. Your body would be blasted with a refreshing shower of hydrogen atoms in a way that one scientist vividly describes as being the same as standing directly in the path of the Large Hadron Collider. Ouch.
Next thing we know, scientists will be telling us there's no way to clone dinosaurs or create all-new sexy blue bodies for ourselves featuring USB-ready ponytails.
Filed under: News/Reactions
Tags: LightSpeed, star trek, StarTrek, warp speed, WarpSpeed
JWWrightat 2-25-2010
Warp drive propels a ship faster than light.
All it does is create a sub-space bubble, that is shaped in a way that interacts with the forces of normal space which wants to collapse the bubble, sending the ship speeding off, like squeezing a watermelon seed with your fingers sends it darting off.
The Bussard collectors are designed to attract and store interstellar hydrogen at warp, which along with the navigational deflectors, clears the space ahead of any obstacles.
personat 2-25-2010
I don't want to be a hater on scientists but it burns me up when they have to come and say stuff like this. It's retarded, I think of how scientists say "Oh Star Wars was all wrong because you can't hear noies in space and you wouldn't be able to see flames from such a small ship explosion." WHO CARES!!! If we sit in silence while people blow each other up , its BORING!!! We don't care what science tells us. All we care about is the FiCTION aspect of it. With FICTION it is supposed to be urealistic. OH yeah I heard some scientist say "Oh the bugs in Starship Troopers were too big, they would have fallen over." COME ON! It's a movie lay off, if the universe has giant bugs there is a reason they are that big and can stand up. Instead off complaining about how fake a FICTION movie is, just sit there and enjoy it. If scientist spend their time figuring that a bug in a fiction is to big or that warp speed should not be allowed in the future because it's impossible now, they need to be told whats what and should get back to work on fixing things in OUR world!
Samat 3-01-2010
The reason scientists are bothered by the level of inaccuracy in movies is because idiots tend to watch them and use them as the basis for their understanding of how the world works. And then those idiots go and vote and create little blog communities spreading their stupid ideas about things that they don't know anything about. And then we as a society have to sit and debate "both sides" of something when in fact, there is only one side.
Bill Bomarat 3-01-2010
Oddly enough, I remember when Microwaves, CDs DVDs, Tape Decks, VCRs, pocket computers, solar cells, AND landing on the moon was all science fiction... OH, and a plethora of scientists telling us how it couldn't be done. Today's science fiction is tomorrow's science fact... Writers have been gengineering humans and other animals for the last 60 years or longer... So...
Jon Silveusat 3-09-2010
It's a silly argument for more than one reason. First, he's totally misunderstanding the warp theory used by Roddenberry. The FTL speeds reached by the Enterprise are done "inside" normal space, essentially pushing physical space as we know it around the ship in order to travel vast distances so quickly. No normal matter or energy will penetrate that field because normal matter an energy require space fabric for existence, thus they go right around the field rather that into it where the ship will be.
Second, if we're talking exhaust propulsion systems then the insane acceleration levels of Star Trek's warp drive would obliterate the entire ship and its contents anyway, making the almost light speed atomic collisions a moot point.