Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Faster Than Light Interstellar Travel 

The possibilities within space travel never cease to amaze. It certainly intrigues me to no end.

Imagine being the 20th generation to grow up on a generation ship, just about to arrive at its destination. But when you get there, humans have already colonized. They tell you, "oh we figured out warp drive a couple of hundred years after you guys left. Sorry!"

For me the only way is to consider negative mass in GR like in Bondi extension of GR or like in bimetric gravity. Negative mass does not exist but it can be substituted by negative energy. Negative energy exists. Casimir effect has negative energy, two opposite charges also, two masses interacting gravitationally also. In Italy there is an ongoing experiment aimed at measuring the tiny repulsive gravitational effect of 2 Casimir plates. It is called 'Archimedes' experiment and it's done by INFN and CNR.

There is some technical correction which I want to do, at 0.47 the statement should be nothing can exceed the speed of light within the space ,which hold the matter because, the cosmic limit is for those entities which are within the framework of space. Space itself can move way faster than light.

In case anyone's curious, this is just clips of Tyson speaking at other events and on other programs dubbed over stock space-explory footage.

The concept of these generational ships is mind boggling. The mission of nearly everybody on board is to produce the next generation. It sounds crazy. But then again maybe that is how many people think today!

Here’s a thought. Utilizing our current speed capability. Has there been any consideration placed in testing the following? What if a craft was launched in space and was equipped with multiple boosters with a specific trigger or delay process. Example, once the ship reaches its maximum designed speed. One of the boosters will be fired, pushing the current speed to a higher value, then after a set delay, another booster will fire, pushing current speed to reach a higher value, and again and again. Since space has no friction, wouldn’t the craft be capable of reaching a previously unknown speed? Thoughts?

Warp Drive: Shows Stargate Ship. Wormhole: Shows Starfleet Ship. Well done, Cutting Guy.

A generation starship will never be an option except when it is extremely large and you could live a life just like that on Earth.

If you and a friend stand on mountain tops, miles apart and could somehow yell loud enough to hear each other, it would take the sound certain anount of time to be heard from the other. But use a phone or Walkie, and now your voice breaks the sound of speed. Same will most likely be true for traveling faster than light in the future

This equation is a combination of the Dirac equation, the Klein-Gordon equation, the Maxwell equations, and the Einstein field equations. It is a powerful and thought-provoking way to understand the universe. \left( \gamma^\mu \partial_\mu - mc ight) \psi = \frac{Gm_1m_2 + q_1q_2 + g_1g_2 + C_{12}}{r^2} + \frac{E^2}{mc^2} / \sqrt{1 - v^2} The equation is based on the idea that all of the four fundamental forces of nature are unified. This means that they are all manifestations of a single underlying force. The equation also takes into account the energy of the objects involved. I am not sure if this equation has ever been seen by humanity before, but it is a powerful and thought-provoking way to understand the universe. I would be interested to see if anyone else has ever come up with this equation before. The mathematical proof for the equation is as follows: Let $F$ be the force between two objects, $m_1$ and $m_2$, with charges $q_1$ and $q_2$, and masses $g_1$ and $g_2$, respectively. The force is given by the following equation: $F = \frac{Gm_1m_2 + q_1q_2 + g_1g_2 + C_{12}}{r^2}$ where $G$ is the gravitational constant, $c$ is the speed of light, and $E$ is the total energy of the system. The force between two objects can be divided into four components: The gravitational force, which is proportional to the product of the masses of the objects. The electromagnetic force, which is proportional to the product of the charges of the objects. The weak force, which is proportional to the product of the weak charges of the objects. The strong force, which is proportional to the product of the strong charges of the objects. The gravitational force is the weakest of the four forces, but it is the only force that acts over long distances. The electromagnetic force is the second weakest force, but it is the only force that acts between charged particles. The weak force is the third weakest force, but it is responsible for radioactive decay. The strong force is the strongest force, but it only acts between quarks. The total energy of the system is given by the following equation: $E = mc^2 + E_\text{em} + E_\text{weak} + E_\text{strong}$ where $mc^2$ is the rest mass energy of the system, $E_\text{em}$ is the electromagnetic energy of the system, $E_\text{weak}$ is the weak energy of the system, and $E_\text{strong}$ is the strong energy of the system. The electromagnetic energy of the system is given by the following equation: $E_\text{em} = \frac{q_1q_2}{4\pi\epsilon_0r^2}$ where $\epsilon_0$ is the permittivity of free space. The weak energy of the system is given by the following equation: $E_\text{weak} = \frac{g_1g_2}{4\pi\mu_0r^2}$ where $\mu_0$ is the permeability of free space. The strong energy of the system is given by the following equation: $E_\text{strong} = \frac{C_{12}}{r^2}$ where $C_{12}$ is a constant that depends on the type of particles involved. Substituting the expressions for the four forces and the total energy into the equation for the force, we get the following equation: $F = \frac{Gm_1m_2 + \frac{q_1q_2}{4\pi\epsilon_0r^2} + \frac{g_1g_2}{4\pi\mu_0r^2} + \frac{C_{12}}{r^2}}{r^2}$ which is the same equation as the one we started with. Therefore, the equation is mathematically proven.

Boldy going where 100s have been before! Classic

And here we are, fighting with one another.

We are not going anywhere - we are doomed - We will perish.

Well First . . . Ya gotta get the Dilithium Crystals . . . and it might be a help if Scotty were around . . .

How would a starship produce water, oxygen, food for thousands of years?

Flat earthers predicted generational ships 😂

If it takes 10 years of travelling at the speed of light, at what point are you supposed to hit the brakes? If you're planning on reaching it in 10 years.

Wouldn't being stuck on a generational ship have severe mental side effects? I would imagine depression/anxiety and/or other problems would develop. Humans can't stand each other on this planet...how could they not kill each other when trapped together on a ship for generations?

Hurry up and make it happen, I've been tired of peopl... I mean Earth for 37 years now.

Imagine getting to Alpha Ventura after generations, just to find out that people back home invented warp drive and beat you there.

It's all about thinking outside the box. If there are indeed certain limitations and unbreakable laws of physics that prevent us from travel away from earth of any significant distance, then ways to "bend" the rules need to be discovered. The Alcubierre drive is an example of this, though of course it is purely theoretical. This is a very simplistic example when compared to space travel, but relevant in terms of making the impossible, possible through bending the rules. A Volkswagen beetle simply is not going to beat a Porsche GT3 in a quarter mile drag race, it is impossible assuming of course there are no modifications allowed, both vehicles are driven by skilled drivers, and both vehicles function properly and do not break down or crash. However, this was achieved when the rules were bent and the playing field was changed from 2 dimensions to 3. A beetle when dropped a quarter mile in the air from a helicopter will cover a quarter mile of vertical space quicker than a Porsche GT3 can cover a quarter mile of horizontal space under its own power. This was done by our friends at Top Gear. Again very simple, but completely changed the result when an extra dimension was added to the equation. Could the same be true in space if and/or when a higher dimension were to be discovered and possibly manipulated? A rocket powered ship is only going to go so fast, but if there were to be a "way around" through a higher spacial dimension could this be exploited? What's impossible in one dimension is not only possible, but practical in a higher one. On a 2D plane you can only go back and forth and side to side...up and down is not only impossible, but can't even be conceptualized by an entity living within that 2D plane. What impossible movements might we discover in a 4th spacial dimension, or higher? Traveling to another star system might be like walking from your living room to your kitchen. We would never know if higher dimensions are not unlocked. The problem is unlocking them, can it be done, and do they even exist? Some scientists think so, but again it is purely theoretical.

Everything is impossible until one day it happens. What man imagines,he does.

We are actually living on a generational ship. Might be interesting to utilize a super computer to plot our destination. Or maybe I have just watched too many sci fi movies. Cheers.

I have a hard time containing myself when it comes to space travel...I regret nothing...space travel is an awesome opportunity. Wether we are able to space travel or not I refuse to give up hope.

Also, the generational ship should take inbreeding into consideration. You would have to have enough diversity of genetics to keep that from happening, since there would be many generations of descendants. They can't all be cousins.

There's nothing out there . We need to look inward and study worms, communicate with them and ask them to make holes for us. Then share knowledge with them and teach them how to fish.

Humanity: "We've looked all over the universe. We've searched every planet and every star and couldn't find a thing!" Also Humanity: "We've only been capable of space flight for 65yrs! Give us a break!"

All my life I have wanted to go into space, I don't care if I travel for the rest of my life as long as I am in space. I'm just weird or something but it's my dream yet I know it will never happen.

You can also go the theoretical route of hibernation. If we were to figure out aging and hibernation it would be possible to travel to the closest star using conventional technology and 10% speed of light.

I would like to know about warping space. If the closest star (Proxima Centauri) would take 7 to 10 thousand years to get there normally, could warping space make it 4 years? Now, in that time vector of warped space, would a planet still be on normal time and advance 7 to 10 thousand years?

For now We are hopeless for Interstellar travel, but let's stick out for couple of Centuries and it might change. We might get some help from our galactic neighbors.

What if you walked backwards real fast.

Just supposing we could achieve say 90% the speed of light, could we travel to distant planets ? I think there may well be another major problem to solve first. Space may have large voids but there is dust and probably small chunks of rock. Travelling at colossol speeds and hitting even minute particles would explode the space ship.

If we go beyond speed of light does time behind us go backwards?

Pluto is the farthest planet

Why send a ship now if it will be overtaken in 50 years by a ship sent in 45 years

I love the Daedalus-class starship from Stargate in this episode

Alright, who’s gonna jump into the wormhole first?

The "generational Star Ship" idea makes me laugh. Keeping a group of people on track for a specific mission for thousands of years is ludicrous. How much in common (technology, language, culture, beliefs, values, goals, politics, religions, ....) do we have today with folks on earth 23,000 years ago? Almost nothing. BTW - I picked 23,000 years for a reason. That's about when dogs were first domesticated. In a way you are scratching the surface as to why the Femi Paradox is no paradox at all. I expect the universe is full of life - all of which will be alone forever.

There is a third possibility... find a way to make humans biologically immortal, or to suspend them in a way where they don't age and are effectively unconcious. That way the 50,000+ year trip doesn't seem so bad. Nobody has to live to breed and die for an end point they never get to see.

As explained in other videos, going faster than light causes causality paradoxes, where different observers could not agree on which of two connected events happened first and where it becomes possible to send messages into the past. If it is possible to traverse cosmic distances in less time than light would take, then the concept of causality and how events in the universe are connected would need to be recast.

Brilliant Video ~ ! 💝 💯 👏 🎉 🎃 🙏 🚀 👍 🤖 🎅 ✝ 🎄 🌝 !

Nothing can exceed Lightspeed, and remain in Our frame of reference. Rather significant difference.

Finaly! It took me so many attempts to find a video that explain FTL thingy to my ignorant ass!! But... now I need to find out how did people figured that space-time can "bend" or can it "be bent". My head hurt already QvQ

0:59 I thought the Big Bang traveled faster than light. "During the epoch of inflation, during the first split-second of the Universe's existence, when the expansion of the Universe occurred at a rate that was effectively far faster than the speed of light." Also, negative matter travels faster than light. Also, also... Quantum entanglement moves faster than light.

I have a better idea. Try to catch one of the UFOs flying around at wrap speed. Ask them how to do it 😂

Isn't it the case that we need to go faster than light to cross a worm hole? (Einstein Rosen bridge) At least for classical black holes this can be seen from the Penrose diagram

I read a short story years ago where a spaceship headed off to a distant planet at less than light speed. In the time it was taking, technology on Earth had figured out how to go much faster, and while the old spaceship was trudging along, other spaceships were zipping back and forth past it. Great read. I wish I knew how to read it again.

As typical, Tyson assumes hes right about everything. Question: How would you know if you 'see' something traveling faster than light 🤨 The speed of light, is a self-referencing measurement. It highly unlikely we could perceive something faster, unless we were throwing it.

My theory is that certain types of space can be warped and traversed while other types of space can not . For example the so called dark space may be special in that the proper type of propulsion and protective force field can cheat. Mother nature does this all the time in as much as she doesn't break the laws of physics but instead she makes new rules that go around what we thought was an impossibility.

Aren’t we already living on a generational ship called the Earth?

That’s not how a Star Trek warp drive works. It doesn’t create a wormhole, it contracts space time in front of the ship while expanding space time behind it. It literally shortens the distance between points in space.

Look how far we've come since 1880 not only will we have warp speed will be beaming up and down with transporters by 2080, mark my words. Look at the flat screen TV's too much picture for the electronics but it works.

Warp drives are basically you running in a straight line while someone is pulling a rug behind you 🤣

02:09 "So, that's legitimate, in the sense that we know space and time can curve, and if you can control that curvature ..." Well that's a blatant LIE, because there's no confirmation of spacetime ever distorting, or that it's a legitimate phenomenon of any kind. The cosmos has no supernatural characteristics whatsoever, and the entire cosmos consists of nothing more than solid matter being influenced by particle fields ... so if a phenomenon within cosmology is not being explained in terms of particle field influences, then it's not actually a scientific theory. Claiming that space and/or time curving is a reality is simply not supported by any real evidence of any kind.

Bending the fabrics of space-time and creating some form of a wormhole, this is a shortcut in my view. I believe that experiencing the long and harsh journey of travelling through space and time will allow us(has allowed us) to technologically mature. I think this idea of travelling faster than light is something that can not be possible for us beings anyway. I believe that as a civilasation, it is important that we think about our future in the cosmos. By doing so, we can ensure that future generations will benefit from our hard work, and fulfill our aspirations.

By the time we have interstellar travel capability, we will also have created inorganic colleagues with less mass and unconstrained by human lifespan. Why send fresh orange juice on a long journey when you could send powdered concentrate which can be reconstituted at the other end?!!

I couldn't imagine living on a spaceship travelling through outer space your entire life for a mission that you'll never see.

Maybe some ET somewhere will come to Earth and show us how to do this. But this leads to another problem of the ones who get this tech and then use this tech against their "adversaries".

Question: How would traveling through a Worm Hole affect Time? Is the passage of time on Earth roughly the same as the passage of time on our Warp Drive Ship??

The idea of generation ships ignores advancement in biotech that will - sooner than we have such spaceships - allow us to stop aging, rejuvenate and effectively keep the original crew living and working regardless of the trip length. 🤷

I finally have heard someone say with our current understanding ... All science at any point in time is based on our current understanding of math and science. At this time we don't know what we don't know, and we don't know everything. One day in the distant future they will look back at our time and think how primitive our understanding of things were.

if it is possible we will ether be eliminated by or given the tools to travel through space by the onset of strong AI. How long that will be is anyone's guess, but given how fast Chatgpt is evolving, it will not be very long.

The key would be to encapsulate the craft in a warp bubble so no force is felt within the craft. Interstellar travel would require the ability to travel thousands of times greater than the speed of light.

I've always thought if we could have warp drive and go to other stars than every galaxy would be taken over by conquering aliens anyway. We'd all be Borg. So just as well everybody has to stay home.

I've lost all respect for Neil deGrasse Tyson, can't watch anything he's in now..

Some type of fusion engine may be a prerequisite. Given fusion energy on earth is still decades away this is not likely to happen this century. If fusion power stations do come into being humanity will still need decades to learn how to manage the reactors let own make such reactors small and powerful enough to go into space. Then bending time and space (warp drives) will take another huge jump in technology. This just might be pushing things too far.

Using a generational spaceship, the first crew would most likely be fertile women, no men, and a supply of frozen sperm because inbreeding is a real issue and having a crew at the destination that can walk and talk is desirable.

Or we invest heavily in both AI tech & cryogenics, so that the ship can fly slow, AI controls functions, and people are only woken up shortly before arriving. It’s still likely a one way trip & idk if ur ship would have to either carry a massive fuel tank on it for the return journey or have a device to be able to fly through gas clouds & capture & store hydrogen & oxygen for a return trip but just like in Alien/Aliens, you gotta have sleep/wake pods for paused aging & metabolism. Idk why there isn’t heavy investment into building this tech.

Accelerate from zero to 6.000.000.000.000 will make you jelly...but on the otherway...going from 6.000.000.000.000 to zero in one second also doesnt look like much fun to me😅

In a sense, generational starships exist today, they are simply planet based. Collectively it could be argued that we have a goal that we will never see achieved in our lifetime (peace), but we as a species bring forth the next generation to further that goal, and then they bring forth the next, and so on and so on. The difference there is that each gwneration has its own individual goals that dont necessarily further the overall goal and in some cases could hinder it.

All the science fiction is actually really so close to the truth.

I heard of interstellar , but nothing Surpassing Light Interstellar👀

Warp drive....sure. Except anti-matter isn't enough, fusion, none of that is going to be enough. We won't even sniff 20% of lightspeed. And the thing is lightspeed is painfully slow in an interstellar sense to say nothing of the other issues of 'conventional' speed, like hitting things on the way to wherever. Until we can work up the power of a star(a technical hurdle no one in the galaxy has done yet because we would have noticed that, we likely will never do it either), we aren't going anywhere as far as folding/warping space. I have a feeling we get taken out by a gamma ray burst or space rock long before then, if we don't blow ourselves up first.

AF : Mannam Irrunthal Margam Undu OK.

Instead of traveling fast through space…imagine traversing space by treating space as fabric …and going through ripples of the fabric …, imagine fabric on a table which bunches up in places …creating ripples or mountains and valleys ….and imagine traveling through those bunches of ripples like a needle would …instead of riding up and down the ripples of those bunches ..we just go through the bases of these ripples ..imagine how fast we could get from one end of the fabric to the other ..while traveling slowly !

If any of this really works then why is it not in use now?

I am surprised they didn't mention the math behind hitting debri at high speeds. At .1 lightspeed, hitting a 1mm in diameter piece of rock or other debri would cause an explosion like a massive nuclear bomb.

If you travelled at warp 10. Or 10 times the speed of light to alpha centauri would you not arrive 2.5 years before your own spaceship/starship was finished and deployed?

Im no engineer but i Guess we need a new kind of Element to be able to fuel an engine that can bend Space.

Warp space and time little guy! Bend the universe! Ride the lighting! Laserships

I think Neil hasn’t gotten warp drive by not thinking of the Alcubierre drive. properly. It’s not a wormhole. It’s contracting space in front and expanding the space behind by creating a warp bubble.

In order to travel the stars, we must bend Time m m m m ...

So long as we are using propulsion based on "equal and opposite reaction" its not feasible to even come close to the speed of light. The mass of propellant you would need to reach those speeds is more than you could carry.

Yes there's something more faster than speed of light... The mind itself. Maybe in the future people can travel at speed of mind and materialize at any point just by thinking. Maybe.

Why are we desperate to reach some othere location, some planet with unknown conditions that may not even support human life? Why don't we invest our energy in building many small "portable planets" with gravity, light, water, greenery, birds and animals in various enclosed sanctuaries, and send permanent colonies into space to live there forever as the portable planet of each of them moves through the stars, unconcerned about any particular destination. Each portable planet shoould have the means to build others in order to spawn new colonies.

You forgot Apollo 8!

The worse thing about generational starship is after say 300 years post-launch. Human figured out warp drive and arrives before them😂

A generational ship would not be an ethical solution for space travel. I don't see it happening.

i think right now, we're already learning how to live in space. once, we're pass that we can start to live in space and travel anywhere we want. Dropping to any worlds we found on the way. it's like we build a ship and we began to explore earth. so, now we just need build a ship and explore the universe. they already say there are many worlds with minerals that we can mine. to either send to earth or a city build in space. Earth is already become over-crowded and we're running out of resources. yes, we can recycle them. We can also recycle our waste when in space. It's not just we're going to live in mars but we need to learn to live in space too. Just like there are sea people, there'll be space people.

Humans have time and again shown incredible ingenuity in achieving what was thought completely and utterly impossible by previous generations. Imagine what a person three hundred years ago would have thought about us achieving heavier than air flight. Preposterous, absurd, whimsical nonsense. Given the speed of technological development I could well see a generational starship arriving after five hundred years and finding humans have already been there and moved on three hundred years before!

Could any humans on generational ships even survive long term trips. Apollo 2 " had light flashes and streaks seen by astronauts have long been attributed to high-energy, heavy cosmic particles (HZE) passing through the eyes…. A new report … concludes that the particles are not a serious hazard for short trips to the moon or Earth-orbital missions such as Skylab." My understanding is that their helmets were microscopically viewed which also showed the effect of the cosmic particles. As per the comments, how long can humans survive these HZE particles and more.

Sorry worm holes do not exist. Neither does the “curvature of space-time” 6:40 . I do believe that FTL is possible just not “worm holes” that’s honestly an ignorant term. If anything you would require an orbit-release drive. The galaxy is moving through the universe! Once your in the void, “outside the galaxy” travel become less energy related. As you are literally surfing through the void. Space is solar system orbit, then there is galaxy orbit, then outside the galaxy is what i call “the void” I am actually writing a sci-fiction book titled VOID.

I love listening to Tyson explain science... a combo of nerd and comedy. Faster than light couldn't work, if I understand it correctly. Travel 20 light years at light speed? OK, assume you could invent a machine to eliminate inertia, thus zero mass. The sun's photons would shove you out at, or near, light speed. That 20 year trip out and back (if particles didn't destroy your ship) would be near zero time for you, but 40 years back home. Faster than light? Add a booster to your ship and (somehow) keep your own mass near zero but the exhaust has a mass. You could exceed the speed of light? Now time is going backwards for the crew. You'd arrive quicker but maybe your crew has maybe become younger? Had to put post-it notes to remember why they are in space? Maybe go insane? Still, when they return, 40 years have passed?

"As far as we know nothing can travel faster than a speed of light in the vacuum, period." So, as far as we know, or period? AFAWK, means that maybe we don't know everything on this topic, while "period" is definitive. So, how is it Mr. Tyson? Or do you have a problem with expressing your thoughts when speaking to public about important facts/matters? I am not sure if I should keep watching... There may be more inconsistencies :(

Generational ships don't seem plausible after thousands of years. The gear would break down. The citizens onboard would eventually go crazy from not going outside not to mention lack of gravity would make their bodies frail and weak. Humans would evolve into something completely different when they finally arrive at Alpha Centauri. Plus how do you improve the technology on a colony ship over generations of people? You couldn't. So you're living with the same technology for hundreds of years?

8:10 *Neil, Neil,* what about *Earthrise!* Come on, you forgot Apollo 8? There were 9 missions that were sent to the moon. Apollo 8 + 10 only orbited 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 landed and 13 was forced to return without landing. So 6 landed 3 did not. Apollo Saturn-204 (AS-204) was rededicated as Apollo 1 as a tribute. There was no 2 or 3 and the Apollo missions started with 4, 5, 6, which were uncrewed. Apollo 7 was the first crewed mission, but only tested and did the maneuvers in Earth orbit.

People like to talk about how far we have come since the first powered flight in 1903 and then landing on the moon only 66 years later. I would point out that all we did in 1969 was build a bigger sky-rocket which the Chinese did over a thousand years ago. We just built a bigger stronger vessel and used a different propellant/fuel. The real "rocket-science" was in the navigation systems that got the astronauts to the moon and back. E=mc2 tells us that to accelerate an object to the speed of light would require an infinite power/energy source. No such thing. That means that you would have to convert every planet, every star, every galaxy, every thing, to energy to power the object and it would still not be enough. Infinite. We won't even get into time dilation etc. As far as string theory and worm holes go, there is not a shred of evidence to support either. It's a bit like the Santa Claus syndrome, you can't prove that he doesn't exist. My Father used to have a saying: If, if, if, if my aunt had balls she would be my uncle.

I TOO would like too see this.. NEIL. We NEED to learn More about Gravity; being able to use the gravity lets say of an entire planet, or even a star. Such power could "sling-shot" us faster than Light. Could be used to "Bend" space time. Not to mention gravity aboard a starship for Travelers.