I believe that many friends know Einstein and Einstein’s theory of relativity. It can be said that Einstein is the greatest scientist in the history of human science for more than 300 years. His greatness is to put forward the theory of relativity, and the theory of relativity guides mankind to explore the universe and explore the countless mysteries of the universe.
The current understanding and application of the theory of relativity by mankind may be only a superficial, even after several hundred years, thousands of years, the theory of relativity may still guide the scientific undertakings of mankind. The theory of relativity is a very great theory. This theory system is very huge. I believe many people know one important branch, that is, the speed limit of objects under the theory of relativity is the speed of light.
I believe that everyone understands that Einstein set a limit to the speed of the object, and this limit is the speed of light. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, any object with static mass can only approach the speed of light infinitely. Only things with zero static mass can move at the speed of light, such as photons.
After reading Einstein’s theory of relativity, friends are very worried about the future of mankind, because when we walk out of the earth and see a broader universe. We all understand how vast the universe is, and the distance between galaxies in the universe is based on light-years. The diameter of the Milky Way is 100,000 light-years, and the closest galaxy to the Milky Way is also tens of thousands of light-years away. In the vast universe where light-years are often used as the unit, the speed of light is nothing at all. It can be said that in front of the universe, the speed of light is only the speed of turtles.
Even if our spacecraft flies at the speed of light, we cannot travel across the Milky Way, not out of the Milky Way, let alone explore the entire universe. If we do not have the ability to travel throughout the universe, it is naturally impossible to reveal the mysteries of the universe. Ultimately, the universe can only be something that can only be seen from a distance but cannot be seen close. If this is the case, is it meaningful for humans to rapidly develop space technology and explore the universe?
Is the speed of light really unable to break through? When human beings stepped out of the earth, they began to explore the universe, and our important tool for exploring and observing the universe is the astronomical telescope. Scientists have been able to observe 2 trillion galaxies through astronomical telescopes, of which the nearest extragalactic galaxy is only tens of thousands In light years, the farthest galaxy beyond the galactic is tens of billions of light years away.
By observing these galaxies in the universe, scientists discovered the fact that most of their spectra show redshifts, and the greater the distance, the greater the redshift value. This means that galaxies outside the galactic are going far away, and the farther the distance is, the faster the distance away. This is the theory of the great expansion of the universe. According to the cognition of modern science, the universe originated from the singularity big bang 13.8 billion years ago. After the big bang, the universe began to expand rapidly, and this expansion speed seems to be much faster than the speed of light.
If the average speed of the expansion of the universe is the speed of light, then the current diameter of the universe should not exceed 13.8 billion light-years, but in fact, the observable universe of mankind now has reached 93 billion light-years. From this value, we can see that the expansion speed of the universe exceeds the speed of light, and the speed of galaxies away from us will also increase with the increase of distance.
In the 1920s, Hubble did a detailed study of the spectra of galaxies. It turns out that the galaxies in the universe are not half blueshifted and half redshifted, but almost all are redshifted. Only a few galaxies near the Milky Way are blueshifted, which indicates that galaxies are basically far away from the Milky Way.
According to the Doppler effect, when the light source gradually moves away, the wavelength of the light will become longer, which will cause a red shift. However, the redshift of the galaxy is not caused by the local motion of special relativity, because there is a more important law, which will make the galaxy regress at a speed faster than light.
We can imagine the universe as an ever-expanding balloon, and the dots on the balloon are equivalent to galaxies in space. Therefore, when the balloon is inflated, the points on the balloon will be pushed away from each other, no matter from which point it is viewed, the other points are retreating, and the farther the distance is, the faster the retreat.
The retrograde of galaxies in the universe is similar to the retrograde of the upper point when a balloon is inflated. As long as the space between galaxies expands sufficiently in a unit time, it will cause the galaxies to retrograde at superluminal speeds.
And scientists also calculated the speed at which galaxies move away as the distance increases based on the Hubble constant. According to calculations, when the distance between the two galaxies reaches 14 billion light-years, the expansion of space will cause them to separate from each other to the speed of light. If the distance exceeds 14 billion light-years, the galaxy will retreat faster than the speed of light.
Seeing this, many people may have such a question: galaxies 14 billion light-years away are moving away from us faster than the speed of light. Doesn’t this phenomenon violate the theory of relativity? The farthest galaxy we can observe now is GN-z11, which is 32 billion light-years away from the earth, and its current receding speed has reached 2.3 times the speed of light.
Does this superluminal retrograde speed contradict the theory of relativity? Some people may think that since the expansion speed of the universe can exceed the speed of light, then the limit theory of the speed of light proposed by the theory of relativity is wrong. Is this really the case? In fact, this is not the case at all. The reason why many people have such misunderstandings is mainly because of their incomplete understanding of the limit of light speed in the theory of relativity.
In fact, when the theory of relativity talks about speed, it refers to the speed of an object relative to a local static space, that is to say, its applicable range is a static flat space without curvature. For example, on the earth or in a limited space, the curvature is basically flat, so the speed limit of the object at this time is the speed of light.
But the real situation of the universe is not a static and flat space, but the curvature is constantly changing. This is the category discussed by general relativity. If two objects are in different spatial coordinates, then when we talk about speed at this time, we need to take into account the changes in the curvature of space-time itself. Under the influence of curvature, the speed will not be limited by the speed of light.
The real universe is full of species and energy, and under the action of gravity, matter and energy, the structure of space-time will change over time, leading to changes in spatial position. Especially when approaching some super-mass celestial bodies, the more serious the curvature of the space structure changes, which is what we call space distortion.
If we can see the distortion of space, you will find that the entire universe is equivalent to a network structure. In the space where celestial bodies exist, the cosmic web will be deformed. The greater the mass of the celestial body, the greater the degree of deformation of the cosmic web. Awesome. It is precisely because the space of the universe is not a flat structure but a space that is constantly distorted, even if an object in the universe is stationary, it will exhibit a gravitational effect.
Therefore, artificial satellites can move at high speeds around the earth. If our spacecraft is drifting in the universe, the direction of its drifting is a massive celestial body. Space is like a conveyor belt. Even if the objects on the conveyor belt are not moving, the moving conveyor belt will move with the objects on it.
The distance between galaxies in the universe does not mean that they are moving at the real speed of light, but that the expansion of the space structure drives them to move at the speed of light. This phenomenon is completely different from the speed probability in the theory of relativity, so the expansion speed of the universe and the speed of galaxy retreat exceed the speed of light, which does not violate the theory of antinomy.
Scientists have observed and discovered the expansion of the universe and the phenomenon of space distortion, which rekindled hope for mankind to explore the universe in the future. Although our spacecraft cannot surpass the speed of light in flat space, we can use the distortion of space to make the conveyor belt of cosmic space fly with the spacecraft faster than the speed of light. This kind of flight mode can be called space jump or wormhole shuttle.
No matter what kind of super-light shuttle mode, we want to achieve it, it is not so easy, we need to strongly twist the space around the spacecraft at any time. Only when the space is more distorted can a higher speed of the cosmic conveyor belt be obtained, and it is possible to advance at a higher speed than the speed of light. To do this, we need to have a sufficient understanding of the universe, and we also need a super powerful energy, which may only be achieved by the dark matter and dark energy that we have been searching for now.