exceed_speed_of_light.html

Let’s go down an imaginary trip to the center of the Milky Way, where a supermassive black hole (BH) of 4 million solar masses resides. First, a little background. Earth’s escape velocity at the surface is said to be 11.2 Km/s. The escape velocity decreases as the distance from the Earth’s center of gravity (CG) increases. At a distance of the orbit of the Moon, Earth’s escape velocity is about 1500 m/s. If we launch an object towards Earth at 1500 m/s from the Moon’s orbit; Earth’s gravity will pull on this object and by the time it reaches the surface it will have a speed of 11.2 Km/s. And if I launch at a greater speed, much greater that 1500 m/s from the Moon’s orbit, the object will have a speed that is greater than 11.2 Km/s when it reaches Earth’s surface. A BH is said to have an escape velocity equals to the speed of light at the event horizon. From a distance of 26,000 light-years away, where we are, the escape velocity from the Milky Way’s BH is about 2.1 Km/s. What happens if we launch an object towards the BH at the center of the Milky Way at a speed greater than the 2.1 Km/s? Assuming no interactions with any other stellar masses, this object will slowly increase in speed due to the gravitational pull of the BH and, according with current theory, it will reach superluminal speed before arriving at the event horizon. There will be some time dilation effects due to the gravitational field and speed, as well as mass increases, but there is no avoiding the fact that the velocity will be superluminal outside the BH’s event horizon. Can gravity do this? Gravity is said to be the weakest force, but we have seen gravity make things possible that the other forces of nature oppose: Nuclear fusion at the center of the stars, overcoming the electron-electron repulsion to make neutron stars and go even further to make black holes. Can gravity also make things go faster than the speed of light? This fact does not fit well with other aspects of current theory. It is not clear what happens to time dilation effects a this point, current formulas tells us that time becomes imaginary (square root of a negative number), not that time goes backwards.

We also have to ask: Why is gravity the only force of nature to warp spacetime? Why the other forces are not capable of doing the same? What is so special about gravitation?

General Relativity (GR) has been the most successful gravitation theory for almost 100 years, and the equations used to explain the curvature of space give results that match experimental data; but we must also admit that these explanations could use some improvement.

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1.3 How to exceed the speed of light Let’s go down an imaginary trip to the center of the Milky Way, where a supermassive black hole (BH) of 4 million solar masses resides. First, a little background. Earth’s escape velocity at the surface is said to be 11.2 Km/s. The escape velocity decreases as the distance from the Earth’s center of gravity (CG) increases. At a distance of the orbit of the Moon, Earth’s escape velocity is about 1500 m/s. If we launch an object towards Earth at 1500 m/s from the Moon’s orbit; Earth’s gravity will pull on this object and by the time it reaches the surface it will have a speed of 11.2 Km/s. And if I launch at a greater speed, much greater that 1500 m/s from the Moon’s orbit, the object will have a speed that is greater than 11.2 Km/s when it reaches Earth’s surface. A BH is said to have an escape velocity equals to the speed of light at the event horizon. From a distance of 26,000 light-years away, where we are, the escape velocity from the Milky Way’s BH is about 2.1 Km/s. What happens if we launch an object towards the BH at the center of the Milky Way at a speed greater than the 2.1 Km/s? Assuming no interactions with any other stellar masses, this object will slowly increase in speed due to the gravitational pull of the BH and, according with current theory, it will reach superluminal speed before arriving at the event horizon. There will be some time dilation effects due to the gravitational field and speed, as well as mass increases, but there is no avoiding the fact that the velocity will be superluminal outside the BH’s event horizon. Can gravity do this? Gravity is said to be the weakest force, but we have seen gravity make things possible that the other forces of nature oppose: Nuclear fusion at the center of the stars, overcoming the electron-electron repulsion to make neutron stars and go even further to make black holes. Can gravity also make things go faster than the speed of light? This fact does not fit well with other aspects of current theory. It is not clear what happens to time dilation effects a this point, current formulas tells us that time becomes imaginary (square root of a negative number), not that time goes backwards. We also have to ask: Why is gravity the only force of nature to warp spacetime? Why the other forces are not capable of doing the same? What is so special about gravitation? General Relativity (GR) has been the most successful gravitation theory for almost 100 years, and the equations used to explain the curvature of space give results that match experimental data; but we must also admit that these explanations could use some improvement.