What is Warp Drive? And is it even possible?

Recent news has been making rounds that NASA is funding research to create a new spacecraft which can execute real life faster than light travel, all thanks to the warp drive.

Now, what exactly is the warp drive?

Those familiar with the science fiction universe will have no doubt heard of the term before, but perhaps the physics behind it may not be so well-known.

However, by the end of this article, you will have a proper understanding of what warp drive is and how it works, whether or not you've watched star trek.

Here is the most important thing to address.

The words 'faster than light travel' may have jumped out at you, and with good reason.

The speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant, and one that cannot be surpassed. Anything with mass can never, ever, travel faster than the speed of light (but that's an explanation for another time).

So how is this warp drive then able to break fundamental laws of physics?

It doesn't.

Don't click off the article, don't get confused, it's actually not that complicated.

Let's say you wanted to get to the nearest galaxy. Well, astronomy geeks will very quickly tell you that the nearest galaxy is the Andromeda galaxy. But there's a small problem.

The galaxy is over 2.5 million light years away.

But, let's imagine that instead of travelling through space to get to Andromeda, we moved the space around us.

Since this cosmic speed limit of 300,000,000 doesn't apply to space, we could make it easier to move large distances by extending the space behind us and contracting the space in front of us.

So that's how warp drive works! If you'd like to learn more about what the implications of warp drive are, have a look at this article.

See you next week!