Can Anything Travel Faster Than Light?

Can anything travel faster than light? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice explain what a tachyon is and how it could travel faster than the speed of light.

What happens when you go faster than the speed of light? What are different ways to move faster than light? We break down a tachyon’s relationship to time, Cherenkov radiation, and how the early universe expanded faster than the speed of light.

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Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!

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00:00 - Breaking the Speed of Light
3:03 - How Tachyons Work
4:42 - Light Traveling Through Different Media & Cherenkov Radiation
9:45 - A Sonic Boom For Light

[robsollart]

There was a young lady called Bright,
She could travel much faster than light.
She set off one day,
in a relative way,
and came back on the previous night.

Yeah I just had to give this limerick here 🙂
Love the channel

[Carverman]

I moved faster than light coming to watch this video 😏

[oldcowbb]

"actual sound of the big bang" cracked me up

[Connectdiscxnnect]

This channel is the only hope I have for humanity. Daily, I face humanity’s mess, separately from my own mess of experiences and emotions, which make it hard to keep my passion for science in focus. Also, there is something about looking at the stars that brings me closer to myself. Humanity oftentimes just feels like some distraction that pushes me further away from understanding myself and the universe. I am grateful for this show and look forward to every episode. Thank you guys for what you do.

[nrood]

i love having people like Neil in the world. they love science so much and are social enough that they can make science fun and entertaining to us who arent into it. so thank you Neil for making science fun for all of us to learn

[Michael-ubob]

My family and I will be coming to see you in Birmingham. Finally get to hear a talk in person. Can't wait for Feb. 27th to get here

[theDubleD]

Hmmm, a Tachyon wormhole you can just step through... that'd be a cool thing to see, you can already experience it in VR and it's a very cool thing to do... wow, this got me going xD i was imagining dialing a wormhole, give coördinates to known places, then remembered Stargate and the dial they used to lock in the Chevrons.... now i'm remembering flying faster than light in Elite what a time to be alive, keep going humanity!

[Blackskies-bz]

I actually love startalk. It answers so many questions i have in such a satisfying way.

[JJs_playground]

5:29 as I understand it, light traveling in water (or any other medium) doesn't mean the photons are traveling any slower than the speed of light (299, 797 km/sec). What's happening is that the photons are running into water molecules making the light wave appear to be going slower.

[donaldsmith]

Happy black History month Neil and Chuck.. best dang channel on YouTube in my opinion.. this is the way

[zhubajie]

I've often wondered if we can finally harmonize general relativity and quantum mechanics so that we can permeate the speed of light in a vacuum as tardyons (particles v<c) can quantum tunnel to tachyons (particles v>c) because of their uncertainty and do so in a controlled and macroscopic manner as opposed to just a few particles at a time.

[sosomadman]

I've always wondered; what if matter is traveling backwards in time from the end to the beginning... it would look like a solid mass if the temporal dimension was also special.
Moving towards its end at the start of the universe.

[ISayNukem]

The vastness and beauty of the Universe NEVER ceases to amaze me! ❤ Okay guys, what if we use the vacuum of space for travel? Also, let's say we figure out how to go the speed of light or faster (minus the stargate idea). How would space debris affect us?

[plaenophotoz]

Tachyon is a good song too! Haha but this star talk was awesome! A teacher is doing there best work when the student is full of questions. Thanks for keeping me curious! Love the show!!

[unnamedx]

Pretty good, but i wanted them to touch on the alcubierre warp drive that theoretically goes faster than light by warping space

[-C.S.R]

I can't wait for Neil to come out with a video to explain this video!

[Gamert]

I love this dude! I remember he had a show on netflix called cosmos, and I wish it were still going. 😢

[Matt_with_Ts]

I tachyoned a few more years to my lifespan when I gave up smoking cigarettes, then fell into a black hole when I started back up again...

Then I quit. Again....

And took up the habit, yet again, faster than light....

Then, finally, triumphantly, I quit for the last time!!

I've also tachyoned a few extra pounds of girth from my overeating compensation of nicotine lackage, and I hate the aaarrgghhh!!!!

And I used tachyon twice.

Love you! -2Ts

[dmarckos]

William Shakespeare understood what you have just explained. You're of exceptional brilliance. Nice discussion.

[IceLordCryo]

Can we just stop for a moment to think about how COOL "Tachyon Chariot" sounds? I want to ride in one of those!!