The
journey of a star ship through interstellar space routinely encountered various
space-time phenomenon. This often provides the background for the hostile stand-off
and dog-fight with the Romulans, the Klingons, and the Dominion. These phenomenon
adds favor to the adventures and the self-exploration on the show. Indeed, things
like time travel often is an important, and not to mention rather popular, plot
device in itself.
These section of the site examine some of these phenomenon. These include the following:
Gravity
(including artificial gravity and inertia control)
Another space-time object encounter in the journey through the interstellar space is the black hole. Black hole is an object where the gravitational pull is so large that not even light can escape. So how can a Star Ship venture within one and still manage to come out? Is this realistic?
Depending on how you view the situation it is entirely plausible for a Star Ship to venture into a black hole and still come out in one piece. And no, the answer does not involve the use of warp field, subspace physics! It is largely a definitional problem.
See
for further details on black hole.
"Subspace" is an often heard term in Star Trek. It is essentially spatial region with properties that are different to our current universe. In particular, its properties are such that it permits travelling, or, enables communication (ie. the personal communicator and ship-to-ship communication work apparently through subspace) at faster than the speed of light. In Star Trek, the warp drive has a subspace generator that effectively put the star ship into subspace to enable travel faster than the speed of light.
In reality it seems unlikely that a medium, like a "subspace", can achieve such a feat. This is based on our current understanding of multiple dimensions. While additional dimensions are said to exist (at least mathematically), it is highly questionable whether we can even observe, or let alone interact, with them.
These are supposed to be subatomic particles that travel faster then the speed of light but not less than the speed of light. Theoretically, some have suggested that they can exist. However, so far they have not been discovered.
Episode on time travel is always very fascinating to watch. And indeed, the time travel plot have always caught people imagination. So is it possible? The short answer is that it is probably not... but then it may just be possible.
Consider
our current understanding of time
travel.
In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the wormhole joins and permits travel between two quadrants of the galaxy. This surely is a wonderful and quick way to travel.
Technically speaking, a wormhole is a theoretical object that links two distant regions of space-time or hpyer-space. The possible existence of such an object really light up our imagination because if wormholes are real, it can provide the means to traverse vast distance of space in no time. Thus, it is no surprised that it has been referred to as a "subway (or gateway) to the star".
While its existence is permitted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity, wormholes are theoretically unstable. However, it has been suggested that during the formation of the universe (ie. the big bang) wormholes could have been stabilised by loops of negative mass cosmic string. Now if only we can find such a wormhole.
|
|
Modified: {modificationDate} |
To top of page
Back
to Index page![[my logo]](../../images/my_logo_b.gif){kind=logo}