Ultraviolet outburst in the M87 jet: Subluminal or superluminal?

Abstract

The observations of the M87 jet with the STIS instrument mounted on board the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that an outburst originating in the HST-1 knot occurred. Measuring the dimensions of the outburst in the epochs between 2001 July 30 and 2003 July 27 and correcting for optical illusion an expansion velocity v/c = 0.99893 +/- 0.00007 is found. However,the relativistic model fails to correctly predict the dimensions of the source and the outburst brightness. For this reason, as the apparent motion suggests, a superluminal mechanical model where even the light rays travel faster than light is introduced. By applying this model to correct for optical illusion an expansion velocity v/c = 21.8 +/- 0.7 is found along with reasonable source dimensions and brightness. This result, the study of the apparent motion of features in the M87 jet and the time-of-flight measurements of muonic neutrinos seem to confirm the possibility to travel faster than light. That does not imply a refusal of special relativity. Instead only the common interpretations of it are refused.Without them, we will also see that the so-called twin paradox does not have any reason to exist.