According to our current understanding of physics, it is impossible for any object with mass to reach or exceed the speed of light in a vacuum. This is stated by Einstein's theory of special relativity, which has been extensively tested and confirmed by numerous experiments.
There are a few reasons why surpassing the speed of light is considered impossible:
Infinite energy requirement: As an object with mass accelerates, its energy increases according to the equation E = mc², where E represents energy, m denotes mass, and c is the speed of light. As an object with mass approaches the speed of light, its energy requirement becomes increasingly enormous, approaching infinity. It would require an infinite amount of energy to accelerate a massive object to the speed of light, which is not feasible.
Time dilation: According to special relativity, as an object approaches the speed of light, time dilation occurs. Time slows down for the moving object relative to a stationary observer. As the object approaches the speed of light, time dilation becomes more pronounced, and reaching the speed of light would theoretically cause time to stop completely. This implies that from the perspective of the object traveling at the speed of light, time would no longer progress, which contradicts our understanding of cause and effect.
Mass increase: As an object accelerates closer to the speed of light, its mass appears to increase according to the equation m = m₀ / sqrt(1 - v²/c²), where m₀ is the object's rest mass, v is its velocity, and c is the speed of light. The closer the object gets to the speed of light, the greater its apparent mass becomes. As mass increases, more energy is required to continue accelerating, making it increasingly difficult to reach the speed of light.
These fundamental principles of special relativity suggest that it is fundamentally impossible for an object with mass to travel at or exceed the speed of light. However, it's worth noting that light itself, which consists of massless particles called photons, always travels at the speed of light in a vacuum.