Warp drive creates a bright flash in the sky when entering the atmosphere

Physicist Sean Fell of the international research organization Applied Physics and astrophysicist Avi Loeb of Harvard University have calculated how a hypothetical warp drive would interact with Earth's atmosphere. According to Ixbt.com, it was determined that a space-time bubble the size of an aircraft, moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light, would create a shock region in front of it with a total luminosity exceeding 1 terawatt. This is reported by Ixbt.com reports.

The study utilized the Alcubierre metric, which provides a mathematical description of a space-time bubble. According to it, space in front of the device is compressed while the part behind it expands, ensuring the ship remains in a stable region. The authors mathematically analyzed the interaction of such a bubble with atmospheric gas at speeds of 0.1c, 0.25c, 0.5c, and 0.75c.

High-energy processes and radiation

A shock region forms in front of the bubble, where gas is sharply compressed and its kinetic energy is converted into heat. Calculations show that at 0.5c, the heating energy reaches approximately 144 MeV per nucleon. At this level, the birth of electron-positron pairs and other high-energy processes can occur.

The primary radiation falls within the gamma and hard gamma-ray range. Total luminosity is shown to be between 10¹³ and 10¹⁹ watts. High-energy photons cannot pass directly through the atmosphere; they are absorbed in the upper layers and re-emitted in the visible spectrum from the Earth's surface.

Atmospheric brightness and important limitations

Depending on the size and speed of the bubble, such radiation flux can vary from 0.007 to 7460 watts per square meter. In the brightest scenario, the glow in the atmosphere was calculated to be several times higher than the normal solar flux at the surface.

Nevertheless, the scientists emphasized that this work does not prove the existence of warp drives, extraterrestrial vehicles, or UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena). The study only examined a specific class of warp metrics with zero ADM mass; such effects might not be observed at all with smaller or differently structured bubbles.