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Article: Faster-Than-Light Travel
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- Space Sciences
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Faster-Than-Light Travel
Whether science fiction novels refer to it as warp speed, hyperspeed, or lightspeed, the prospect of traveling at the speed of light or faster has enthralled humanity for decades. The possibility of traveling at speeds millions of times faster than those at which people travel today has been the focus of much debate and research. Faster-than-light travel is necessary for space journeys because of the huge distances between stars and star systems. The nearest star to Earth, not including the Sun, is 4.3
light-years
away. This means that at the speed of light it would take 4.3 years to get there and 4.3 years to return. The Milky Way Galaxy is more than 100,000 ...