By FITSNews || Scientists recently learned that achieving warp speed was full of unintended consequences, like the creation of a black hole that would suck up the earth and destroy us all.
Bummer, huh?
Well, as if that wasn’t a sufficient buzz kill, a professor at Johns Hopkins University now says that atomic particles floating in the blackness of outer space would also deliver “lethal radiation blasts” to interstellar travelers.
From Space.com:
There are just two hydrogen atoms per cubic centimeter on average in space, which poses no threat to spaceships traveling at low speeds. But those same lone atoms would transform into deadly galactic space mines for a spaceship that runs into them at near-light speed, according to calculations based on Einstein’s special theory of relativity.
The original crew of “Star Trek” featured as unfortunate examples at a presentation by William Edelstein, a physicist at Johns Hopkins University, at the American Physical Society conference in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 13. The physicist showed a video clip of Kirk telling engineer Scotty to go to warp speed.
“Well, they’re all dead,” Edelstein recalled saying. His words caused a stir among the audience.
Great.
Here’s the best part of the story, though …
Some audience members at the American Physical Society event protested that Kirk, Spock and the “Star Trek” crew would all still live because of the starship Enterprise having shields. But Edelstein noted some of the existing difficulties with creating an electromagnetic shield with any resemblance to “Star Trek” technology.
Oh to have been a fly on that wall (not)!
Fortunately, science has yet to sink its teeth into “ridiculous” or “ludicrous speed.” Yet …
By No Name March 10, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Damn I am never going to get home.
By the Space Boogey March 10, 2010 at 9:37 pm
“Beam Me Up SCOTTY… !”
By BIN News Editorial Staff March 10, 2010 at 10:57 pm
sic(k) willie’s has spent too much time at warp speed. It’s clear that hydrogen atoms have invaded sic(k) willie’s brain and have combined with residual C2H5OH and a tremendous and excessive residual build up of tetrahydrocannabinol. That would explain most of his hallucinations.
Sucking tricky micky mulmousey’s checkbook explains the rest.
By Tom March 11, 2010 at 8:36 am
I once heard a scientest say that “if” intersteller travel became possible, it would probably involve artificially created wormholes, like what was done on the 90s tv show Babylon 5.
By Barry March 11, 2010 at 9:17 am
Love all the so-called scientists wasting time explaining why Trek-tech can’t work, citing current knowledge as the basis. Oddly enough all of these scientific pronouncements run along the same lines as “heavier than air vehicles can never fly” and “x-rays will be proven a hoax” from the late 19th century.
And for the 20-bajillionth time, warp speed isn’t physical “speed”; it’s a warping of space to shorten the distance between points.
Frak me…
By dirtbogger March 11, 2010 at 9:46 am
Time in space does not move in space at the same rate as it does on earth is. That fact alone proves that time and space has forces minipulating them.Thus time travel may not be as far fetched as you may think and may be key to space travel. Yes what Tom said.
By WorkingTommyC March 11, 2010 at 11:22 am
Maybe when we more fully understand gravity and the structure of space, we’ll be able to develop a unipolar gravity beam to pull spaceships along anywhere we want to go and very quickly by essentially folding space in front of us or by puncturing through space more smoothly than a black hole does.
A black hole essentially pulls EVERYTHING in–including space. It could require less energy than we imagine now for interstellar space travel since it may be more of a problem of finding the correct “frequency setting” of gravity that can affect the fabric of space vs. throwing the whole spectrum at it. (Yeah, I got that problem solving technique from Dr. McCoy in Star Trek: The Original Series, Episode 29: “Operation-Annihilate!”)
And I know that there are lots of problems with those ideas too but, as pointed out by a previous poster, they are only unsolvable in context of what we (think we) know today.
By Domo Arigato Mr Roboto March 11, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Dirtbogger, if it could be manipulated, I’m betting either Howard Rich or the education establuisment will be working hard to make it happen.
By Mango Tango March 11, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Aaaargh, Governor, I can’t hold her together much longer…