According to our current understanding of physics, as described by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, it is not possible for any object with mass to exceed or even reach the speed of light in a vacuum. The theory of relativity is supported by extensive experimental evidence and has been highly successful in explaining a wide range of phenomena.
There are a few reasons why surpassing the speed of light is considered impossible:
Time dilation: As an object approaches the speed of light, time dilation occurs, meaning that time slows down for the moving object relative to a stationary observer. As an object with mass accelerates, its energy increases, and the closer it gets to the speed of light, the more energy is required to accelerate it further. At the speed of light, time dilation would be infinite, and it would require an infinite amount of energy to accelerate an object with mass to that speed.
Mass increase: According to relativity, as an object with mass approaches the speed of light, its mass appears to increase from the perspective of a stationary observer. As the mass increases, it becomes more challenging to accelerate the object further, requiring even more energy. Approaching the speed of light, the mass would become infinitely large, making it impossible to accelerate to or beyond that speed.
Causality violation: Exceeding the speed of light would also lead to violations of causality, which is the principle that cause and effect must follow a specific order. If an object could travel faster than light, it could potentially arrive at a destination before an event that caused its departure had occurred. This would create paradoxes and contradictions in the sequence of cause and effect.
While our current understanding of physics suggests that exceeding the speed of light is impossible, it's worth mentioning that scientific exploration and discovery may lead to new insights and modifications to our understanding in the future. However, any theoretical breakthroughs that might allow circumventing the speed of light would likely require a significant departure from our current understanding of physics and would need extensive experimental validation to be accepted.
It's important to note that there are concepts such as wormholes and warp drives that have been explored in science fiction as potential means of faster-than-light travel. However, these ideas remain purely speculative and are not supported by our current scientific knowledge. They involve hypothetical constructs and exotic forms of matter or energy that have not been observed or confirmed to exist in the universe.