How To Detect Faster Than Light Travel

How To Detect Faster Than Light Travel

From PBS Space Time by PBS

May 5, 2026 · 23 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the potential for detecting gravitational waves from warp drives, if they exist, and what to look for.

Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://www.pbsspacetime.com/shop Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Warp drives may or may not be possible, but if they are then could a distant alien civilization’s warp fields produce gravitational waves that we could see here on Earth? According to a recent study.. Actually maybe, at least eventually. And we now know just what to look for and how to look for it. PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to:http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/spacetime Search the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ Space Pod 3d model: futaba@blender What no one has seen before: gravitational waveforms from warp drive collapse: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2406.02466 Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Richard Dyer & Matt O'Dowd Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini & Stephanie Faria Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber Executive in…

People in this episode

Host: Matt O'Dowd

Topics covered

  • faster than light travel
  • warp drives
  • gravitational waves
  • alien civilizations
  • astronomy
  • science

Keywords

  • warp drive
  • gravitational waves
  • alien civilizations
  • faster than light
  • astronomy
  • PBS Space Time

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: PBS, Kornhaber Brown, PBS Digital Studios

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