London, Feb 17 (ANI): Scientists have determined that the concept of warp speed, proposed in sci-fi shows like 'Star Trek', may actually take the lives of the crew of a spaceship in a matter of seconds.
According to a report in New Scientist, the problem with warp speed is Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity.
It transforms the thin wisp of hydrogen gas that permeates interstellar space into an intense radiation beam that would kill humans within seconds and destroy the spacecraft's electronic instruments.
Interstellar space is an empty place. For every cubic centimetre, there are fewer than two hydrogen atoms, on average, compared with 30 billion billion atoms of air here on Earth.
But according to William Edelstein of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, that sparse interstellar gas should worry the crew of a spaceship travelling close to the speed of light.
Special relativity describes how space and time are distorted for observers travelling at different speeds.
For the crew of a spacecraft ramping up to light speed, interstellar space would appear highly compressed, thereby increasing the number of hydrogen atoms hitting the craft.
Worse is that the atoms' kinetic energy also increases.
For a crew to make the 50,000-light-year journey to the centre of the Milky Way within 10 years, they would have to travel at 99.999998 per cent the speed of light.
At these speeds, hydrogen atoms would seem to reach a staggering 7 teraelectron volts - the same energy that protons will eventually reach in the Large Hadron Collider when it runs at full throttle.
"For the crew, it would be like standing in front of the LHC beam," said Edelstein.
The spacecraft's hull would provide little protection.
Edelstein calculates that a 10-centimetre-thick layer of aluminium would absorb less than 1 per cent of the energy.
Because hydrogen atoms have a proton for a nucleus, this leaves the crew exposed to dangerous ionising radiation that breaks chemical bonds and damages DNA.
"Hydrogen atoms are unavoidable space mines," said Edelstein.
The fatal dose of radiation for a human is 6 sieverts.
Edelstein's calculations show that the crew would receive a radiation dose of more than 10,000 sieverts within a second. (ANI)
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