The most distant galaxies in this deep field image from the James Webb Space Telescope appear as small, faint dots—and are receding from us faster than the speed of light due to cosmic expansion. If ...

The light echo around the star V838 Monocerotis as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in November 2005. When I was a teenager, I was—shockingly, I know—deeply nerdy. At a science-fiction convention, I ...

Faster-than-light (FTL) travel is a concept that has long captivated both the scientific community and science fiction enthusiasts. In a cosmos where light speed is viewed as the ultimate velocity ...

If there is an absolute law in the universe, it’s that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. For science-fiction enthusiasts, that’s a bit depressing. Space is big, and while the speed of ...

Here is a thought experiment for you: imagine shining a powerful laser at the moon, the beam cutting through space until it lands on its dusty grey surface. Now flick the laser so the spot of light ...

Scientists have taken one more step down the very long road to time travel. A new paper combines the Alcubierre “warp” drive with the idea of “controlled closed timelike curves.” Though far out, ...

Nearly 60 years ago, the original Star Trek series ignited a dream in the public’s imagination: that one day, people would travel the galaxy in ships propelled by faster-than-light “warp drives.” The ...

When I was a teenager, I was—shockingly, I know—deeply nerdy. At a science-fiction convention, I bought a button that read, “186,282 miles/second: Not just a good idea, it’s the law.” It was poking ...