10 Biggest Advancements In Star Trek History

Subspace is made of infinite pocket dimensions layered on top of our universe. The different laws of physics in these domains allow signals to travel faster. Without using a warp drive, a signal sent through normal space can only travel at a maximum of the speed of light, which is why Starfleet sends their communications through subspace. This method allows starships to instantly communicate with Earth while hundreds of lightyears away (though, past a certain distance, the signal would need to be amplified by a subspace relay station).

Subspace was also used to generate warp bubbles around starships to protect them from the effects of bending space. Warp travel would be impossible without subspace.

It's unclear when exactly subspace was discovered, but it must have been before Zefram Cochrane's first warp flight in 2063, unless he somehow was able to tap into subspace without fully understanding what it was.

Subspace is fictional, but it shares some similarities to the extra spatial dimensions proposed in string theory. If string theory were proven, it would be one of the greatest scientific achievements in human history, and a huge step towards a theory of everything