When a laser experiment fails to produce the expected flash of light, most researchers would assume something went wrong with ...

We wouldn’t notice. Or we’d die. Depends on how much it changed. Relativity already tells us what would happen if the speed of light were to change, and the answer is nothing. Consider a stationary ...

In 1676, by studying the motion of Jupiter's moon Io, Danish astronomer Ole Rømer calculated that light travels at a finite speed. Two years later, building on data gathered by Rømer, Dutch ...

The speed of light is a fundamental constant, approximately 299,792,458 meters per second. It's the same for all observers and hasn't changed measurably over billions of years. Nothing can travel ...

Light is the fastest-moving thing in the universe. So what would happen if the speed of light were much, much slower? In a vacuum, the speed of light is about 186,000 miles per second (300,000 ...

Here, a calcite crystal is struck with a laser operating at 445 nanometers, fluorescing and displaying properties of birefringence. Unlike the standard picture of light breaking into individual ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

The biggest issue you'd face is reaching that speed in the first place. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. In science fiction, ...

Chris Impey receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Hearst Foundation. Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, ...

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Sam Baron, Associate professor, Australian Catholic ...

The principle of relativity, as initially described by Galileo, posits that the laws of physics remain consistent regardless of an observer's relative motion. Einstein's special relativity ...

Sam Baron receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Hi Devanshi! Thanks for this great question. As far as we know, it’s not possible for a person to move at twice the speed of light. In ...