From Antimatter to Wormholes: The Science of Interstellar Travel

From Antimatter to Wormholes: The Science of Interstellar Travel

Speaker: Dr. KaChun Yu, Curator of Space Science, Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Ideas about traveling beyond the confines of Earth have triggered human imaginations for millennia. Once we understood how truly far away the distant stars are, journeying to them has become a recurring theme in speculative fiction in print and later on screen. This has, in turn, inspired scientists and engineers over the past half century to dream of and to investigate ways of traveling beyond our solar system. But how realistic are these schemes? Do they follow the laws of physics? Is faster-than-light travel using “warp” drives possible?

In this presentation, Dr. Ka Chun Yu will take the audience on a whirlwind tour of the science and technology behind interstellar travel, separate fact from fiction, and even estimate how far in the future interstellar travel may be possible.