Warp Drive

Star Trek: Lower Decks ends with 'The New Next Generation,' a fitting finale for the best Trek of the streaming era.

Colors change, time distorts, and you'd probably get pancaked.

Scientific American's staff share their favorite sci-fi books, from beloved classics to overlooked gems and our modern favorites

Imagine a spaceship driven not by engines, but by compressing the spacetime in front of it. That's the realm of science fiction, right? Well, not entirely. Physicists have been exploring the theoretical possibility of "warp drives" for decades, and a new study published in the Open Journal of Astrophysics takes things a step further—simulating the gravitational waves such a drive might emit if it broke down.

Scientists say they can detect the presence of advanced propulsion systems through gravitational waves.

Einstein was right! Scientists found the first-ever evidence of "plunging regions" of spacetime where matter inexorably falls into black holes, as predicted ...

Season 5 of 'Star Trek: Discovery' has just confirmed its release date, and dropped a new mysterious clip at the same time. Here's what it all means.

A black hole analog could tell us a thing or two about an elusive radiation theoretically emitted by the real thing.

NASA has revealed how the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will grant astronomers the deepest view into the heart of the Milky Way ever as they hunt for...

Ever since we first looked up at the night sky and saw the glittering tapestry of distant stars, humanity has wondered about what else might be out there. As we learned more about the Universe, our…

In the world of "Star Trek," the starship Enterprise zips through space using a warp drive that harnesses antimatter. But scientists are making important...

It's difficult to determine the shape of our galaxy. So difficult that only in the last century did we learn that the Milky Way is just one galaxy among billions. So it's not surprising that despite all our modern telescopes and spacecraft we are still mapping the shape of our galaxy. And one of the more interesting discoveries is that the Milky Way is warped. One explanation for this is that our galaxy has…

Plus: A warp drive breakthrough. Read the new Pop Mech issue NOW.

A new space telescope named Euclid, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with important contributions from NASA, is set to launch in July to explore why the universe's expansion is speeding up. Scientists call the unknown cause of this cosmic acceleration "dark energy." By May 2027, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will join Euclid to explore this puzzle in ways that have never been possible before.

Pockets of warped time in distant galaxies could shed light on dark energy, dark matter, and the existence of an undiscovered "fifth force."

First look released in celebration of Picard Day.

Engage.

The Maximals and Optimus Primal get their first movie, but even with Michael Bay gone, it's a visual mess. In theaters June 9.

This model of the fictional starship Enterprise was used in the weekly hour-long "Star Trek" TV show (NBC-TV), which aired from September 1966 until June 1969.

Astronomers used gravitational lensing and supercomputers to identify the colossal black hole, which is among the largest ever found.