For decades, the idea of “boldly going” across the stars has been confined to the flickering screens of science fiction, dismissed by many as a mathematical impossibility. But a groundbreaking new study has flipped the script on the cosmos, unveiling a physically plausible model for bending spacetime that sidesteps one of the biggest roadblocks in warp-drive theory: the need for exotic negative energy that doesn’t exist. Read on for an overview of this new model and discover why it may hold the key to the collective dream of faster-than-light space travel.
Why faster-than-light travel matters more than you think
The idea of a “warp drive” comes straight from science fiction, most famously Star Trek. In the show, Starfleet ships travel faster than light by colliding matter and antimatter, then turning that massive burst of energy into propulsion. According to the series, that raw power alone is enough to push a ship beyond light speed.
In the real world, scientists have been exploring the possibility of faster-than-light travel for decades. The motivation is simple and practical: without something like warp drive, reaching even the nearest star system is almost unimaginably slow. Traveling at the speed of light, the closest stars would still take about four years to reach.
The 1994 theory that changed how scientists think about warp speed
Modern scientific discussions about warp speed trace back to 1994, when theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre introduced what is now known as the Alcubierre drive. Rather than breaking the laws of physics, his idea works within Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
In simple terms, the Alcubierre drive doesn’t move a spaceship through space faster than light. Instead, it moves space itself. The concept involves using an enormous amount of energy—possibly more than exists in the universe—to squeeze spacetime in front of the ship and stretch it behind, forming a kind of bubble. Inside that bubble, astronauts wouldn’t feel extreme acceleration, and the usual laws of physics would still apply. The ship would remain locally at rest while spacetime does the moving.
A common way to picture this is with the classic “tablecloth trick.” Imagine a spaceship sitting on a tablecloth that represents spacetime. Instead of the ship sliding across the cloth, the fabric is pulled and reshaped, placing the ship in a new location without it technically moving through space.
According to Alcubierre’s model, spacetime would expand on one side of the vessel and contract on the other, driven by vast amounts of energy and a special ingredient known as exotic matter—specifically, negative energy. This requirement is where many scientists take issue.
Critics argue that the sheer mass and negative energy needed make the Alcubierre drive impractical with any technology humans can realistically build. Even NASA has explored the idea, spending much of the past decade investigating physical warp-drive concepts through its Eagleworks Laboratories. So far, however, those efforts haven’t produced any major breakthroughs.
Inside the new model for a practical warp drive
The latest breakthrough comes from the Advanced Propulsion Laboratory (APL) at Applied Physics, published in the peer-reviewed journal Classical and Quantum Gravity. In their report, the APL team presents what could be the first physically realistic warp drive—one that doesn’t rely on negative energy, the elusive ingredient that has long made faster-than-light travel seem impossible.
The study itself is heavily technical, but the main idea is simple: rather than trying to push a spaceship through space with impossible energy, this model moves spacetime itself in floating bubbles. These bubbles can be shaped and manipulated in ways that dramatically reduce the need for exotic matter. According to the researchers, this isn’t the only possible method for warp travel, but it is the first to be grounded in physics we can understand, making a long-imagined dream feel more tangible. In fact, even Miguel Alcubierre, the physicist behind the original warp-drive concept, has given his endorsement.
Of course, there’s a major catch: we still don’t know how to build this in practice. “While the mass requirements needed for such modifications are still enormous at present,” the APL scientists write, “our work suggests a method of constructing such objects based on fully understood laws of physics.”
So while a functional warp drive might still be decades—or centuries—away, this exciting new model makes faster-than-light space travel feel like it could happen sooner than anyone thought possible.