By James Pero For Dailymail.com
Published: 22:45 GMT, 15 March 2019 | Updated: 22:46 GMT, 15 March 2019
1
View
comments
One Ivy League Astronomer says humans could achieve fuel-free interstellar travel by harvesting energy from binary black holes in a brand new method dubbed the 'Halo Drive.'
Theoretically, said David Kipping, an astronomer at Columbia University, aliens could already be using that technology without our knowledge.
The Halo Drive method of propelling a spacecraft would work by utilizing 'gravitational mirrors' – a region of a black holes that swallows up matter and shoots it back out in exactly the same direction – to absorb the holes' energy.
The Halo Drive theory uses black hole energy to propel space crafts beyond the speed of light. Artist's impression of a black hole is pictured
'The search for intelligence amongst the cosmos is often guided by considering the possible activities of hypothetical advanced civilizations and the associated technosignatures that would result,' said Kipping in a study published in the journal AirXiv.
'Along these lines, this work has considered how an advanced civilization might utilize the light sailing concept to conduct relativistic and extremely efficient propulsion.'
Scientists have observed that when photons enter a gravitational mirror and are subsequently shot back out, they not only gain velocity from their journey, they also retain some of the kinetic energy from the visit.
Kipping says using those returned photons, which are called 'boomerang photons,' interstellar travelers could
