The speed of light is the fastest anything can travel. What happens to a photon from a galaxy 25 million light years away on its journey toward Earth?
Articles on Speed of light
Displaying all articles
We may never know – and the universe may not even have an edge. But here’s what we do know.
Your experience of time is relative because it depends on motion – more specifically, your speed and acceleration.
A multitude of experiments have shown the mysterious phenomena of quantum mechanics to be how the universe functions. The scientists behind these experiments won the 2022 Nobel Prize in physics.
There’s a special type of particle called a ‘tachyon’ which would have to travel faster than the speed of light. But here’s the hitch – we can’t prove tachyons even exist.
The fastest things ever made by humans are spacecraft, and the fastest spacecraft reached 330,000 mph – only 0.05% the speed of light. But there are ways to go faster.
If humanity wants to travel between stars, people are going to need to travel faster than light. New research suggests that it might be possible to build warp drives and beat the galactic speed limit.
If you are a sci-fi junkie you’ve probably wondered what would happen if you were unlucky enough to fall into a black hole. How well you’d fare all depends on the type of black hole.
When you see a bolt of lightning, do you immediately start counting to see how far off a storm is? An atmospheric scientist parses the practice.
The speed of light is of great advantage when sending data over the internet, but it is a real challenge to master on a small chip. A new design offers a solution: convert the energy to sound.
Many people think relativity puts a hard speed limit on the universe, but it actually opens up the possibility of faster-than-light travel - if we can overcome some significant practical hurdles.
There’s a cosmic speed limit that unfortunately means you aren’t going to be firing up warp drive anytime soon.
Top contributors
-
Professor and Chair of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University
-
PhD candidate in Brillouin optomechanics, University of Sydney
-
Professor of Astrophysics, University of Sydney
-
Assistant State Climatologist and Research Scientist in Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University
-
Professor; ARC Laureate Fellow, Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems, University of Sydney
-
Research Fellow in Photonics, University of Sydney
-
Associate Professor of Physics, Oklahoma State University
-
Assistant Professor of Physics, Grinnell College
-
Research Scientist, SETI Institute
-
Professor, Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne
-
University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona
-
Associate Professor of Physics, University of South Florida
-
Assistant Professor of Physics, Grinnell College
-
Associate Dean of Innovation and Engagement, Swinburne University of Technology
-
Project Scientist, University of California, San Diego