Watch an animation of a black hole shooting jets of particles through a "collapsing star at nearly the speed of light" and ...

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will show you what it is like to travel to the speed of light using a short animation video. If you're interested in science fiction, you might ...

The hyperdrive from Star Wars appears to depict an ultra-relativistic motion through space, extremely close to the speed of light. Under the laws of relativity, you neither reach nor exceed the speed ...

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 ...

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, ...

Light is faster than anything else in the known universe, though its speed can change depending on what it's passing through. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

Michael Lam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...