The speed was measured by the Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus (otherwise known as OPERA), located in Italy, says the Associated Press.

The detector, which weighs a little over 1.3 million kilos, detects neutrinos produced by CERN's laboratory in Geneva.

However, much of the scientific community, and even most of those inside the team at OPERA, are treating the finds with caution.

When asked by Science Mag whether he thought this meant the end of relativity, Antonio Ereditato, spokesperson for OPERA, said, "I would never say that."

However, he also said that, "We are forced to say something. We could not sweep it under the carpet because that would be dishonest."

OPERA has invited other scientists to verify the results and conduct further experiments themselves, in order to either prove or disprove the findings.

The experiment itself allowed for a 10 nanosecond margin of error in the timings. Chang Kee Jung, neutrino physicist at Stony Brook University in New York, said he'd be interested to find out how they had a margin of error so low.

"From the systematic s of GPS and the electronics, I think that's a very hard number to get."

Given the potential impact of the find, most scientists are concerned enough to at least consider the possibility, but skeptical enough to suspect that simple error is responsible for the number.

Brian Greene, Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in New York, who also researches superstring theory, told AP that if the numbers were correct, "this would change the idea of how the universe is put together."

 "[But] I would bet just about everything I hold dear that this won't hold up to scrutiny."

[AP]