Star Trek’s Warp Speed is Far Slower Than You Think
Image from Dr. James O’Donaghue on Twitter
A scientist has posted a video on Twitter demonstrating that Star Trek’s “warp speed” is, in fact, painfully slow.
Dr. James O’Donoghue, a planetary scientist with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, posted the video last week. In the video, a miniature starship Enterprise accelerates to warp 9.9, between our Sun, and the dwarf planet Pluto, at about 39.5 astronomical units. In the video, at warp 9.9, it would take 9.5 seconds to get to Pluto, and 18 hours to get to our nearest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri.
Dr. O’Donoghue said he used the most recent Star Trek Encyclopedia, by Michael and Denise Okuda, for the definition of warp speed. He acknowledged that the definition of warp speed has not always been constant, in response to one Twitter user who pointed out that his illustration was not consistent with the Starfleet Technical Manual.
Another Twitter user pointed out that while the illustration demonstrated that warp speed is actually much slower than we realize, our perception is likely due to how TV shows are made. Luke Moore tweeted, “Slower than expected, mainly based on how often the Enterprise travels at the Speed of Plot! Thanks for sharing!”
This article was written for the podcast Daily Star Trek News.
Alison Pitt is the writer, producer, and host of Daily Star Trek News, on the Roddenberry Podcast Network. A veteran Star Trek podcaster, she started her career on the weekly show Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast in 2015. She has appeared on panels at Star Trek Las Vegas, WonderCon, and San Diego Comic Con.
