Scientists are becoming more confident that they will be able to contradict Einstein's assertion that nothing can travel faster than light, after carrying out another test.
Italian physicists first made the startling claim in September but have now repeated an adapted version of their experiment, which produced the same result.
The test suggests that sub-atomic particles called neutrinos can break the barrier. If such tests can be repeated, they would challenge one of the fundamental assumptions of modern physics.
Scientists have submitted their latest findings to the Journal of High Energy Physics for consideration. They said that they had waited until now to submit the paper to take into account suggestions from other scientists and carry out a new test.
They beamed neutrinos through 730 kilometres (454 miles) of rock from the nuclear research facility Cern in Switzerland to Gran Sasso, Italy.
A light beam would take 2.4 milliseconds to travel the distance - but both experiments have shown a neutrino can beat it there by 60 billionths of a second.
In 1905, Albert Einstein stated in his theory of special relativity that nothing can travel faster than a light beam in a vacuum - 168,282 miles per second. According to the theory, it would take an infinite amount of energy to exceed light speed.

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