How light reaches the speed of light

Light is everywhere in our lives. It is the most common thing we see in life, but also the most mysterious thing around us. In the vastness of the universe, light travels at great speed between the stars, bringing light sources to the planets. For years, scientists have been studying the secrets of the speed of light, too.

It is rumored that if we can reach the power of the speed of light, then we can achieve time travel and go to how a place in interstellar space. So how can light reach the speed of light? And where is its power source?

What is the speed of light?

The term "speed of light" is not uncommon in our lives, and scientists use it whenever they measure the distance between an extragalactic galaxy and Earth. As the fastest moving object we have found in nature, the speed of light in vacuum and some transparent media is called "speed of light".

When operating in the vacuum of the universe, the speed of light can reach a staggering 300,000 kilometers per second, what exactly is this concept?

For example, if an astronaut transmits a light signal from the Moon to Earth, it will only take about one second for the signal to reach Earth. Because of the extreme speed, one cannot normally observe the transport of light through one's naked eye.

The first valid measurement of the speed of light was proposed in 1676 when a Danish astronomer named Rohmer presented the speed of light to everyone.

While observing the period of motion of Jupiter's moons, Rohmer found that the period of motion of Jupiter varied during different times of the Earth's year. In response, Rohmer thought that there must be a time difference in the propagation of light. Because of the distance between Earth and Jupiter, it also takes a certain amount of time for light to travel above the Earth.

After arriving at this theory, Rohmer then hypothesized that it would take 22 minutes for light to cross the Earth's orbit, so on top of the light delay, the Io eclipse in November of that year would have to delay reaching Earth by another 10 minutes than people expected.

At first, people were skeptical of Rohmer's claim, but as time passed, the November eclipse was indeed delayed by 10 minutes before it was observed, and this delay eventually confirmed Rohmer's claim. With the development of technology, the exact speed of light propagation has been gradually calculated.

How is the speed of light reached?

Since ancient times, human beings have always had the dream of leaping light years beyond the universe to explore the secrets of the deeper universe. But to travel freely through space, we need the support of "speed". If we rely solely on human power, we can not even get rid of the Earth's gravity, let alone shuttle in space.

With the development of science and technology, humans have gradually invented rockets and other high-speed vehicles, to get rid of the speed of the Earth's gravity. But compared with the speed of light, the speed we can achieve is still too slow, so how exactly does light reach the speed of light?

Before clarifying this question, we have to solve a misunderstanding, that is, light is not in acquisition to reach the speed of light, as early as the beginning of the birth of light, light has been able to reach the speed of light.

Other matter in the universe cannot reach the speed of light mainly because they are unable to reach the speed of light either based on their innate mass or during their later propagation.

To understand how light reaches the speed of light, then we need to understand the difference between light and conventional matter, light can reach the speed of light, and it has its rest mass is inseparable from the relationship.

In the world, nothing is free from the form of matter, even light is no exception. The light we can see is an electromagnetic wave, and this electromagnetic wave, because of its wave-particle duality, we can see both as a particle and as a wave.

In physics, a photon is an ordinary elementary particle, and the biggest difference between it and the conventional matter is the "rest mass".

Unlike conventional matter, the photon's natural rest mass is 0. Through Einstein's theory, we can understand that matter with a rest mass other than 0 can never reach the speed of light, so in the innate structure, the photon has gained an important foundation to reach the speed of light.

Through later research, scientists discovered the reason why photons can have 0 rest mass. It turns out that in our universe, there is a "Higgs field".

The existence of the Higgs field gives the particle mass but also slows down the speed of the particle. The exception is the photon, which does not have a relationship with the Higgs field, and is, therefore, able to reach the speed of light.

A strange "power source"

If matter wants to increase its speed, then it must be supported by a power source, and photons are no exception.

But as far as we can see, the motion of light does not seem to require a power source. Since its birth, the photon has had a very high forward speed, so the "power source" of light is still a mystery to us.

With the development of technology, we can use external forces to make other substances on earth achieve higher operating speed, but photons, it is born with super high speed.

It does not need any external help, and we do not know what kind of power source the photon has. We still need to explore the power source behind photons.

By reaching the speed of light, we may be able to travel through time and space. In the future, we also look forward to human beings being able to solve the mystery of the speed of light, taking us to see the universe in all its starry splendor, and also allowing us to realize the journey of space-time travel.