Space Travel | Space-Time and Propulsion Theories

But in reality, if we think about it, light moves very slowly compared to the immense scales of the universe: Earthlings would have to wait more than four years for a ship travelling at the speed of light to reach the closest stars, and 25,000 years to get to the nearest galaxy, Canis Major Dwarf.

It would seem that we are condemned to never meet other beings with whom we might establish a civilized relationship.

Fortunately, modern theoretical physics offers us a solution: manipulate space-time to move ourselves to other remote places in the cosmos without formally violating the universal speed limit.

The simplest explanation to take home of why you can’t travel faster than light is this: if it were done, an effect could appear before its cause, since the velocity of light is the invariant cosmic ruler that measures physical phenomena - we could receive a phone call before the caller thinks about making it.