Warp Drive Engine Could Suck Earth Into Black Hole

June 11, 2009 -- "Star Trek" makes faster-than-light travel look easy, but according to new calculations by Italian physicists, a warp drive could easily create a black hole that would incinerate any passengers on a space craft and then suck Earth into a black hole.

"Warp drives are so far the best case scenario to attain faster-than-light travel," said Stefano Finazzi of Italy's International School for Advanced Studies. This paper "makes it much harder to realize, if not almost impossible, warp drives."

Source

I thought i would put this up for everyone.

I really hope that a stable working warp drive system is implemented into space craft in the not too distant future. Although I think having a working anti-kinetic/matter type shielding system should be a greater priority for future space craft.

It seems everything cool can possibly make a black hole and destroy us all. First of all the LHC and now warp drive.

Ya know back in the day of steam power people once thought anyone traveling in a train over 100 MPH would be squished in their seats...

When Electricity was first brought into peoples homes the outlets had screw caps... the fear was electricity would leak out make an unseen puddle and if you stepped in it you'd get shocked...

The scientist who made the A bomb were 50/50 on whether or not the atmosphere would burn up and later people said faster than sound speed was impossible...

funny but we as a species always seem to keep doing the impossible don't we?

[edit on 13-6-2009 by DaddyBare]

Since the 'Star Trek' version of Warp Drive is a way to travel through subspace, I am hard pressed to see how this would cause a black hole. A black hole is formed by large amounts of dense matter. Where exactly does all this matter come from (stellar amounts) within a warp drive engine?

Originally posted by CaptainCharisma
It seems everything cool can possibly make a black hole and destroy us all. First of all the LHC and now warp drive.

Everything Cool According to Captain Charisma:

1) Large Hadron Collider

2) Warp Drive

That is all. Captain Charisma has spoken! Harken ye knaves!

Originally posted by JaxonRoberts
Since the 'Star Trek' version of Warp Drive is a way to travel through subspace, I am hard pressed to see how this would cause a black hole. A black hole is formed by large amounts of dense matter. Where exactly does all this matter come from (stellar amounts) within a warp drive engine?

From the Source Link
Warp drives are the second and more appealing option. A ship can't move through space faster than the speed of light. But with enough energy, space itself can move faster than the speed of light.

I would think they are saying the "matter" in question is space itself. Apparently it would harness the space around the ship to try and warp speed themselves somewhere else in the universe.

This all sounds like fiction but I bet if you went back in time with a cell phone you'd be burnt at the stake so who knows.

We will probably be space tourists in a hundred years.

[edit on 13-6-2009 by BaronVonGodzilla]

reply to post by JaxonRoberts


This is from the article....

In normal space any object approaching the speed of light will increase in mass exponentially, and require an exponential increase in the amount of power needed to propel it forward. dsc.discovery.com...

Since the warp drive accelerates the object towards the speed of light, then perhaps that feature in itself is sufficient to speculate black hole generation, since they state....

The biggest sticking point to a extra dimension-based warp drive? The entire mass of Jupiter would have to be converted into pure energy to power it. dsc.discovery.com...

So lots of matter and very dense like you said; a precursor to black hole generation.

General relativity predicts that as an object collapses to form a black hole, it will eventually reach a point of infinite density.

Source

So I guess this does not rule out whether the "ship" would become infinitely massive, thus being analogous to a black hole.

Many questions left unanswered.





[edit on 13-6-2009 by Unlimitedpossibilities]

I don't buy that...
For some time now the people at LANL has worked on superluminal (Faster than light) Radio waves... I need to point out an electron has mass not much mass, but still... Therefore if there was a chance that the mass of that electron were to become infinitely massive at superluminal speeds we would have seen that in early testing...

LANL Superluminal radio waves

I doubt the "study" is real.

First, we already knew that (e=mc2), so it's obvious (just by using simple math) that mass will increase exponentialy.

Second, if the so called "warp drive" warps space, the object (for example: a spaceship) DOESN'T move, which means everything stays the same (no velocity, because v=d/t will be impossible since d=warped space=0). The best example for this is the paper sheet. Put a paper sheet in front of you, the paper will represent space, now draw a point for the ship and another for the destination. Geometry says the the shortest distance between two points will be a straight line, BUT, since space can be warped, the shortest distance will be 0. Fold the paper (space) and make the two points (spaceship/destination) touch each other. That's a warp drive! There's no movement, no distance, no velocity.

Why would you go to the mountain, if the mountain can come to you?



[edit on 14-6-2009 by Pilas Odor]

If I recall something I read (could be wrong happens alot) everything has a gravitational pull. Look at a square graph and put a planet say Mars on there. The grid would dip according to the gravity. That keeps the moons and other things in its orbit. So if you had a bad ass gravity machine could you pull parts of space together and traverse it? Like I said I remember seeing that somewhere. If I am wrong please feel free to correct. I have beer to drink... CHEERS!

Here is a simple pic.... the heavier the mass the more the "space" around it folds.....



[edit on 09/19/2005 by swampcricket]

Originally posted by Pilas Odor
Geometry says the the shortest distance between two points will be a straight line, BUT, since space can be warped, the shortest distance will be 0. Fold the paper (space) and make the two points (spaceship/destination) touch each other. That's a warp drive! There's no movement, no distance, no velocity.

Why would you go to the mountain, if the mountain can come to you?

[edit on 14-6-2009 by Pilas Odor]

I think your mixing up folding space and warping space. Warp drives are based on warping space (hence warp ). Basically you compress the space in front of you and expand the space behind you. Which ends up moving you (, here's a nice little movie that has a animation in it.

www.space.com...

Originally posted by JaxonRoberts
Since the 'Star Trek' version of Warp Drive is a way to travel through subspace, I am hard pressed to see how this would cause a black hole. A black hole is formed by large amounts of dense matter. Where exactly does all this matter come from (stellar amounts) within a warp drive engine?

Well real life isn't Star Trek either. FTL(faster-than-light) travel may require an enormous gravity source that would create it's own 'space frame' (or more popularly 'warp field'). But it doesn't have to be a blackhole, just a very powerful one..

Matter can't go FTL within a space frame, but a space frame can go FTL. So matter within a FTL spaceframe is also moving at FTL with it!

We still don't understand that is the exact mechanic that generates gravity. It is still uncertain if 'massless gravity' is possible. Until then, we can assume it's possible. If that is possible, then it isn't necessary to create such field within a starship anymore, it can be externally done and avoid damage to the ship and crew.

It is also stupid by the way to conduct FTL flight trials near an inhabited planet, not only 'gravitic risks' are present. But the threat of high energy lethal radiation that can be emitted by the ship traveling at relativistic velocities. Radiation like Cyclotron/Synchotron or Bremsstrahlung or Cherenkov radiation or a combination. They can come as hard X-rays or may even be Gamma rays!!

Originally posted by DaddyBare
I need to point out an electron has mass not much mass, but still... Therefore if there was a chance that the mass of that electron were to become infinitely massive at superluminal speeds we would have seen that in early testing...

Electromagnetic waves (including radio waves) are not composed of electrons. They are composed of photons, which have no mass.

The experiments in which light is made to move "faster" than light are somewhat of an illusion. In a pulse of light, the trailing edge can be made to pass the leading edge but no "thing" has exceeded the speed of light.
physicsworld.com...