The CERN researchers are now looking to the United States and Japan to confirm the results.

But given the enormity of the find, they still spent months checking and rechecking their results to make sure there was no flaws in the experiment. Albert Einstein famously posited that the speed of light in a vacuum is both constant and absolutely the fastest possible speed for any object in the universe. Scientists calculated the margin of error at just 10 nanoseconds, making the difference statistically significant. The neutrinos had apparently exceeded the speed of light. So the OPERA announcement was bound to generate excitement, even if the neutrinos in question were only moving nanoseconds faster than light hardly sufficient to outrun the Cylons, but. That stands for energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.īut neutrinos – one of the strangest well-known particles in physics – have now been observed smashing past this cosmic speed barrier of 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers).ĬERN says a neutrino beam fired from a particle accelerator near Geneva to a lab 454 miles (730 kilometers) away in Italy traveled 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. Nothing is supposed to move faster than light, at least according to Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity: The famous E (equals) mc2 equation. “This would be such a sensational discovery if it were true that one has to treat it extremely carefully,” said John Ellis, a theoretical physicist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, who was not involved in the experiment. The readings have so astounded researchers that they are asking others to independently verify the measurements before claiming an actual discovery. If subatomic particles called neutrinos can go faster than the speed of light, it would require a rethinking of the basics of physics, including the possibility.

Scientists at the world’s largest physics lab say they have clocked subatomic particles traveling faster than light, a feat that – if true – would break a fundamental pillar of science. An Italian experiment has unveiled evidence that fundamental particles known as neutrinos can travel faster than light. Yes, according to the CERN scientists from Geneva.

Neutrinos travelling faster than light