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READ MORE: Researchers from Oxford claim they have accomplished teleportation
From H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine to
Christopher Nolan
In ‘s Interstellar, the idea of traversing through time has captivated individuals for hundreds of years.
However, despite sounding like pure science fiction, physicists currently think that time travel might actually be feasible.
Actually, according to scientists, humans have already accomplished this.
However, before you begin planning your journey to ancient Rome, experts warn that actual time travel differs significantly from depictions in films.
It might seem obvious, but here on Earth, we all move through time at a speed of one second per second.
Nevertheless, according to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, it is feasible to traverse time at a speed exceeding this rate.
The quicker an individual moves, the more rapidly they can advance through time—progressing centuries within mere minutes as they get closer to the speed of light.
Even though this impact is not very noticeable at lower speeds, it implies that astronauts onboard will experience the following:
International Space Station
(ISS) are all essentially ‘time travelers,’ jumping ahead into the future.
What is time travel?
In films such as The Terminator, time travel typically entails entering a device that transports you to a completely different moment in the past or future.
Nevertheless, genuine time travel doesn’t involve jumping from one moment in the chronology to another.
As stated by NASA, ‘time travel’ involves moving at a rate exceeding one second per second.
Even though it seems unlikely, the space agency asserts that this is indeed feasible.
Actually, each person moves through time at varying rates based on their location and speed of movement.
This implies that time travelers are amongst us daily, and you could be one of them as well.
In what ways can one journey ahead through time?
In 1915, Albert Einstein introduced his theory of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin and demonstrated that traveling through time could be feasible.
Although this scenario might seem strange, Einstein’s theories indicate that such time travel is not just feasible but occurs very frequently.
Dr. Alasdair Richmond, a philosophy professor and specialist in time travel at the University of Edinburgh, explained to MailOnline: “According to Einstein, the rate at which time progresses around you changes based on your speed.”
In essence, this indicates that the quicker you move, the more slowly time passes for you.
Therefore, when you’re traveling on an airplane or train, you’ll experience time more slowly compared to people who are stationary, and various experiments have confirmed this phenomenon.
In 1971, scientists Joseph Hafele and Richard Keating embarked on an experiment aimed at demonstrating Einstein’s theory of relativity by inducing time dilation within terrestrial conditions.
The researchers utilized two highly accurate atomic clocks and placed them aboard commercial airplanes that were able to circle the globe non-stop.
One clock was dispatched towards the east and another towards the west, after which both were contrasted with a third clock that remained static on the ground.
As the clock moves eastward along with Earth’s rotation, it travels faster compared to the one stationary on the ground, thus experiencing a lesser passage of time.
As the clock moves westward, counter to the Earth’s spin, it slows down compared to the stationary clock below, thus experiencing an incrementally greater passage of time.
Moreover, consistent with what general relativity anticipated, upon landing, Hafele and Keating discovered that the eastern clock had lost 59 nanoseconds whereas the western clock had gained 237 nanoseconds.
Is there anyone who has traveled through time?
Based on this theory, individuals who spend considerable time traveling at high velocities are considered time travelers.
Crew members on the ISS circle the Earth at approximately 17,500 mph (28,100 kmph), a speed that allows them to undergo minimal time dilation effects.
For instance, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has accumulated 520 days in space station missions and consequently, he has
aged slightly more slowly compared to his identical twin, Mark Kelly, who remained on Earth.
.
At a panel discussion during the ISS Research & Development 2016 conference, Mark stated: “Previously, I was merely 6 minutes older, but now I am 6 minutes and 5 milliseconds older.”
Although these impacts are minor, they occur frequently enough to genuinely create technical problems for precise systems such as GPS satellites.
Given that satellites travel at approximately 8,700 miles per hour (14,000 kilometers per hour), they continually move ahead in time relative to Earth-based clocks. Consequently, their internal timing mechanisms must compensate for this discrepancy.
If the satellites used in GPS did not account for relativistic effects on time, they would fail to determine their accurate location in orbit and thus become ineffective for exact navigational purposes.
Can you travel backwards?
Although moving forward through time is an inevitable result of physical laws, journeying back in time presents a separate narrative.
‘Drifting back through time poses far greater challenges,’ explains Dr Richmond.
Nevertheless, even though it might be impractical in reality, Dr. Richmond notes that backward time travel is ‘technically feasible’ in theory.
This occurs due to the necessity of distorting time and space when reversing direction.
Professor Peter Watson, a theoretical physicist at Carleton University, explained to MailOnline: “Mass can warp space-time; this phenomenon actually defines gravity according to Einstein’s theory.”
‘Theoretically, we have the ability to create a curvature of space-time that forms a loop or tunnel.’
The resultant formation would be referred to as a wormhole, or a passageway through spacetime.
Sadly, maintaining a wormhole open long enough to traverse it necessitates the use of ‘negative mass,’ a concept that remains purely hypothetical.
Moreover, even if we had access to a wormhole or another mechanism capable of forming a ‘closed time-like loop,’ you would never be able to utilize it for traveling back in time before the date it came into existence.
Dr. Richmond notes: “Should we construct the world’s first closed timelike curve generator tomorrow afternoon, I wouldn’t be able to utilize it for traveling back to any point before tomorrow afternoon.”
Therefore, even though backward time travel could potentially work in theory, going back in time to meet your parents just like Marty McFly did in “Back to the Future” remains impossible for now.
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