Particles, smaller than the size of an atom, have been observed moving faster than the speed of light.

A research team led by Antonio Ereditato - coordinator of the Opera collaboration (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus) - have found the time it would take for neutrinos – which are subatomic particles - to travel 730 kilometers from CERN labs, Geneva. to their lab under a mountain in Gran Sasso, Italy.

Their particles arrived 60 billionths of a second faster than particles traveling at the speed of light.

The error in their experiment is just 10 billionths of a second.

Jeff Forshaw, a professor of particle physics at Britain's Manchester University, told Reuters the results, if confirmed would mean it would be possible to "send information into the past." Being able to send information faster-than-light is, by Einstein's theory of relativity, equivalent to time travel.

"If something travels faster than the cosmic speed limit, then it becomes possible to send information (through time) into the past" said Professor Forshaw.

"Light speed is a cosmic speed limit," he added.