There is no evidence that aliens are flying around the galaxy in starships powered by faster-than-light warp drives – but if they were, we could detect such a ship breaking down using our current Earth-based technology, say researchers. Such a discovery could confirm the existence of alien life, though sadly any crew aboard the ship would be torn apart by forces similar to a black hole.
While warp drives are best known from Star Trek, theoretical physicists have found it should be possible to create a bubble of space-time that can propel a craft within it at great speed – even faster than the speed of light, because it is space-time itself that is moving. These theoretical warp drives rely on exotic materials that we don’t know actually exist, such as ones with negative energy density, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t possible.
Inspired by the many warp drive mishaps depicted in Star Trek, at Queen Mary University of London and her colleagues decided to investigate whether such an incident in the real universe would release ripples in space-time called gravitational waves, and if so whether we could detect them. They found that once a warp-powered starship was up to speed and travelling at a constant velocity, it wouldn’t create any gravitational waves, but it would if accelerating or experiencing a malfunction.
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What’s more, Clough says we already have the technology to detect these gravitational waves. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), designed to reveal secrets of the galaxy and black holes, is sensitive enough for the task, but observes the wrong frequency range of gravitational waves. Developing such a device to look at the appropriate frequency for warp drive signatures would be a “matter of funding” and not engineering or science, says Clough.
She speculates that if we were to see evidence of warp drive problems, it could indicate that aliens were working on the technology and were having early development problems leading to failures. But one thing is certain: it would be bad news for anyone near to the device at the time.
“All of this curvature in the space-time that is in the warp bubble collapses inwards before it goes out again. And that basically means you’d have really strong tidal forces. In the same way when you fall into a black hole, you get kind of pulled apart,” says Clough. “It would be a very unpleasant place to be, I think.”
at Southeastern Louisiana University says that current gravitational wave detectors on Earth are affected by large passing vehicles and ocean tides. Because of this, they need vast amounts of supporting infrastructure that can help offset that interference, something we may want to rethink if we decide to start watching for evidence of warp drives.
“If you can have money to build whatever kind of gravitational wave detector you want, I’d put it in space,” says Allain. “You wouldn’t have to worry about all the structure that you [would on Earth] have to build around it. You just have to have these devices and set them at some point in space where they can stay in the same position.”
arXiv
