The question of if time travel is possible has always hung in the air among science fiction lovers. Well according to a new report, there could be a possibility of time travel after all, though there is skepticism among some scientists.

Up until recently (September 22), it wasn’t believed that anything could travel faster than light. However, this may have been proven wrong by physicists from INFN Gran Sass Laboratory in Italy and CERN in Geneva. The European researchers have detected neutrinos, tiny subatomic particles, taking the leap in an experiment. CERN sent neutrinos to the INFN Gran Sass Laboratory, and clocked the particles moving faster than light by 60 nanoseconds over 453.6m (730km), which is a rather close call.

The Theory of Special Relativity from Einstein says that neutrinos shouldn’t be able to travel at the speed of light. These particles have a very small mass, and mass is equal to energy, according to Einstein’s E=mc squared equation. As something begins to move faster, its energy increases. Applying the equation to this means that the mass would increase as well. A heavier object needs more energy to make it go faster. Harvard University physicist Gary Feldman told LiveScience that eventually unreasonable amounts of energy are needed to keep objects pushing toward the speed of light. This is because, the more energy that’s added, the less effective it becomes in incrementally approaching light speed.

There have been other particles shown to surpass the speed of light if they travel in a medium instead of a vacuum. However, neutrinos pass through the Earth, like it’s a vacuum, and in theory shouldn’t be able to travel faster than light speed….ever. Because of this, there is speculation that the neutrinos in the report probably didn’t. Feldman commented that the experiment was a very complicated analysis, and despite the researchers doing a careful job, there’s the possibility that an error was made.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Seth Lloyd says that one error could possibly be in the calculations the researchers used in correcting the effect of the atmosphere. Light gets slowed down when it isn’t in a vacuum, and neutrinos can move through the atmosphere unaffected. It’s possible the scientists miscalculated in determining the correct atmospheric effect and that the particles didn’t actually travel faster than light speed. However, the light is moving just a little slower.

Well anything seems to be possible. Some people never thought that there would be a day when the average person could travel into the Earth’s orbit. However, now there is an airline planning to launch flights to space in about one year, while there are also plans for a Commercial Space Station.