For more than a century the speed of light was treated as an unbreakable cosmic limit. Now physicists are revisiting that ...

Our universe plays by certain rules, which originate from different branches of physics. But sometimes the rules seem ...

For decades, the idea of “boldly going” across the stars has been confined to the flickering screens of science fiction, dismissed by many as a mathematical impossibility. But a groundbreaking new ...

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 ...

The idea of warp drive—the ability to travel faster than the speed of light—has fascinated humanity for decades. It began as a fictional concept in Star Trek and Star Wars, fueling imaginations and ...

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 ...

Physicists discovered that the famous ‘Star Trek’ spaceship got a lot right about designing a ship to jump from galaxy to ...

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 ...

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 ...