According to two studies published in March 2013, the speed of light may not be a constant because the vacuum of space in which it travels is not really a true vacuum.
The two articles were published in the European Physical Journal. The first, "The quantum vacuum as the origin of the speed of light," is authored by Marcel Urban, François Couchot, Xavier Sarazin, and Arache Djannati-Atai.
The second article "A sum rule for charged elementary particles" was written by Gerd Leuchs and Luis L. Sánchez-Soto.
According to the authors of the two studies, the speed of light -- which is referred to as "c" in equations like E = mc2 (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared) and has been measured to be 299,792,458 meters per second, or 186, 282 miles per second -- is not really a true constant.
The authors of these two studies contend that the vacuum of space is not actually a vacuum because is consists of particles with changing energy levels.
Because of this, the speed of light may vary (may not be constant) in the vacuum of space.
Further, the paper that included Dr. Gerd Leuchs stated that the speed of light can actually be based on the electrical charges of particles, and not on the masses of those particles.
Please read the March 25, 2013 Science Daily article "Speed of Light May Not Be Fixed, Scientists Suggest; Ephemeral Vacuum Particles Induce Speed-Of-Light Fluctuations".
It states, "… there is a theoretical possibility that the speed of light is not fixed, as conventional physics has assumed. But it could fluctuate at a level independent of the energy of each light quantum, or photon, and greater than fluctuations induced by quantum level gravity. The speed of light would be dependent on variations in the vacuum properties of space or time."
The picture, above, is from the December 13, 2011 CNN article "MIT camera system captures speed of light".
MIT camera system captures speed of lightMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
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