The universe is an unfathomably big place, so there’s plenty of opportunity for intelligent life to evolve out there among the stars. Of course, with the universe being so gigantic, me might never get to meet these beings. Even at near the speed of light, it would take years to cross the gulf between stars. The good news, according to a pair of researchers at government contractor Raytheon, we’ll be able to see any aliens as they come our way at such amazing relativistic speeds.
Everything we know about physics and the workings of the universe tells us that nothing can match or exceed the speed of light. You can pour all the energy you want into accelerating a spacecraft, but it will always be a few fractions of a second behind a photon. This feat is still beyond our current technology, but the mathematics work. So could a more advanced civilization from a distant star come here at 99% the speed of light?
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