Just how fast is the speed of light?
So, you want to travel at the speed of light?
Lets explore what happens!
The current speed of light is 300 million metres per second, 299,792 kilometers per second (in a vacuum)
with an equivalent of 670 thousand miles per hour.
In other words - FAST !!
This is the widely accepted limit on the speed anything in the universe can travel at.
Going faster could breach the laws of physics. But since noone has ever done it, we have no idea what
happens.
Given the nearest solar system to this solar system is 4.367 light years, this would take over 4 years to reach if we
travelled at the speed of light. Since nothing that we know about (except light!) can travel at that speed,
it would not be possible to reach there in this time.
A rocket such as the fastest we have , the Helios probes, would take 18,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri!
Clearly we need to travel a lot faster.
And thats just the nearest star system in our plan of interstellar travel.
Other proposals have been put forward, that would drastically reduce this time.
NASA's project Longshot plans to get there by nuclear travel could reach there by 100 years.
Stephen Hawking had suggested an even faster method that could potentially reach much higher speeds using
a nanocraft, something very tiny, fitted with a nanosail.
This could be powered by beams towards the sails, potentially getting speeds up to 100 million years.
Could a nanocraft hold the technology required to communicate its findings back to Earth?
That would take 4.367 years for any communication to come back by the way.
Clearly the distances are immence, and humans have not given up the hope of something travelling at light
speed. Whether a human can fit on board it is a different matter.
Have Aliens figured out this puzzle, are they able to propel themselves at such great speeds necessary for
interstellar travel?
Or, did they find another method to travel the vast distances, such as worm holes?
The mystery deepens