superluminal

[soo-per-loo-muh-nl]

adjective

Astronomy.

1. appearing to travel faster than the speed of light.

superluminal

/ ˌsuːpəˈluːmɪnəl /

adjective

1. physics of or relating to a speed or velocity exceeding the speed of light

Word History and Origins

Origin of superluminal¹

First recorded in 1955–60; super- + Latin lūmin-, stem of lūmen “light, rays of light, radiance” + -al ¹

Example Sentences

Importantly, giving it up doesn’t cause a theory to fall afoul of Einstein’s theories of relativity, much like physicists have argued that Bell nonlocality doesn’t require superluminal or nonlocal causal influences but merely nonseparable states.

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“That said, this is a very nice result that shows the same ‘superluminal’ velocities we saw in the ‘blowtorch of the gods,’” Dr. Doeleman said in an email, referring to another recent report of a black hole erupting.

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The southern jet, coming toward us, appeared to be advancing across the sky at superluminal speed, more than one and a half times the speed of light — an impossible velocity, according to relativity, which established the speed of light as the cosmic speed limit.

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The prohibition on sending a superluminal signal is ordinarily referred to as locality.

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A similar need for superluminal signaling would apparently be needed in scenarios where a black hole is prevented from forming in the first place.

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