The idea of traveling through time has fascinated humanity for more than a century.
Traveling through space-time at a whim does some like a scientific fantasy, with modern
travel’s physical constraints, however, new research suggest that traveling through
time may be achievable, but it may be rather risky.
Keep watching till the end of this video as Scientists reveal how time travel is possible!
These theories are mind-blowing!
Welcome to Space Infinity.
TIME TRAVEL Among the many ideas of the known and unknown
universe that humankind has always found intriguing is the concept of time Travel.
Nowadays, traveling through time may seem quite prominent in pop culture, with plenty
of time travel storylines referenced in movies, TV, and through literature.
From one of the earliest time travel stories in the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex written by
Sophocles over 2,500 ago, to the world’s mightiest heroes, the Avengers, using time
travel to beat Thanos and fix reality, traveling through time is a tool and concept that has
prevailed through time.
Who in fact, wouldn’t want to have the ability to travel forwards, or backwards in time,
not only to witness historic spectacles in time such as the early beginnings of the universe,
but also to change realities as we know it?
But is time travel in fact possible?
This legitimate question has been the subject of research and theories, with scientists
keen at finding the answers to universal theory.
Currently, the simple answer to this question, is that time travel cannot be possible, otherwise
human civilization would have knowledge on how to do it, or would already be doing it.
The ability of traveling through space-time is argued to be forbidden by the laws of physics,
such as the second law of thermodynamics or relativity.
The concept, which has long been embraced by science fiction, finds itself as a topic
of constant debate by theoretical physicists.
Many of these scientists find some common ground, such as the possibility of time-travel,
but with the involve vast amounts of energy, or that travelling to the future may be doable,
albeit it being a one-way ticket.
To understand this further, we need to understand what time is, and just how we travel through
it.
THE CONCEPT OF SPACE-TIME Time is familiar to everyone, yet it’s hard
to define and understand.
It’s more than the hands on a clock that tells us what time it is, with science, philosophy,
religion, and the arts having different definitions of it.
However, as a system of measurement, it is a relatively consistent.
Classical mechanics state that time is the same everywhere.
We all understand that while you may stand still at a given space, time will move forward
around you, and within you, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
Physics defines time as the progression of events from the past to the present, and into
the future.
It is considered the fourth dimension of reality, and is used to describe events in three-dimensional
space.
Time is something we cannot see, touch, or taste, but can still measure its passage.
Despite time not having matter, it matters so much.
Well in fact, that we try to decipher the ways we travel through it.
In fact, we’re all doing it right now, travelling into the future at the rate of one second
per second.
Whether you’re witnessing something slow or fast, all of us that exist in reality move
through time at the same speed.
Not anyone has the ability of easily moving through time changing the past or seeing the
future before it happens, as no one has ever demonstrated the kind of back and forth travelling
in time as seen in most science fiction.
As famous physicist Stephen Hawking pointed out in his book., “Black Holes and Baby
Universes” “The best evidence we have that time travel is NOT possible, and never
will be, is that we have not been invaded by hordes of tourists from the future.”
Time naturally, moves forward.
Which is why traveling through it as easily as energizing a plutonium-poweered DeLorean
isn’t as easy as it’s thought out to be.
Science states that Time travel violates the second law of thermodynamics, which states
that entropy, or randomness must always increase.
Time can only move in one direction and as such, you cannot unscramble an egg you’ve
placed in a pan.
Travelling into the past from a present or now that has a high entropy state, into a
past that leads to a totally new present and future, which has lower entropy is a violation
of the second law of thermodynamics.
Science does, however, support some amount of time-bending.
In fact, another famous physicist Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity does propose
that time is an illusion, moving relative to an observer, and when that observer is
traveling near the speed of light, he/she can experience time much more slowly than
an observer at rest.
This include time’s aftereffects, such as the passage of time or boredom, and physical
aging among others.
This theory is demonstrated when astronaut Scott Kelly, aged ever so slightly less over
the course of a year in orbit around Earth, compared to his twin brother who stayed on
the planet’s surface.
Einstein’s theory of special relativity is the basis for real-world concepts and research
on the possibility of time travel.
To understand this concept better, Einstein re-envisioned space itself by coining the
phrase “Space-Time”.
The fabric of space-time is a conceptual model that fuses the three dimensions of space with
the fourth dimension of time as a single concept.
Space time is simply the physical universe inside which we and everything else exists.
With this model, Einstein highlights his theory of special relativity, by focusing on time
being relative depending on how fast you are moving within space-time.
This is how we can better understand and acknowledge that time-travel is indeed possible through
these time dilations.
The faster you move through space, the slower you move through time.
The tenets of Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity, as well as his later expansion,
the Theory of General Relativity has since become the foundation of modern physics, and
has three pillars.
First is that all things are measured in relation to something else, that is to say, there is
no “absolute” frame of reference in the universe.
Second is that the speed of light is constant, no matter where it is measured from.
Third and last, is that nothing can go faster than the speed of light.
And while we may not be accelerating anyone to near light-speed as of late, we do witness
the effects of Einstein’s theories from the astronauts we send out into space.
Astronauts who log in numerous days in space experience time differently due to the difference
in speed they’re travelling in while in orbit.
According to special relativity, the faster an object moves relative to another object,
the slower the first object experiences time.
This is also applies for GPS satellites that operate with atomic clocks, which results
in each satellite cutting 7 microseconds, or 7 millionths of a second each day as it
orbits around the planet.
Meanwhile, General Relativity also theorizes, that clocks closer to the center of a large
gravitational mass like the Earth may tick more slowly than those farther away.
This adds another 45 microseconds onto those GPS satellites which are much farther from
the center of the Earth, compared to clocks that are on the planet’s surface.
In order to maintain the accuracy of our atomic clocks, engineers account for these lost microseconds,
38 microseconds in fact.
This type of time travel may seem negligible, but is indeed the clearest description of
time dilation, and in essence, of time travel itself in effect today.
There are however, more radical theories that open the possibility of traveling through
time with the use of advanced technology.
General relativity provides scenarios that could allow travelers to go back in time using
wormholes, or Theoretical Tunnels through space-time that could connect different moments
or locations of reality to others.
These wormholes are also called Einstein-Rosen Bridges.
Other researchers have also proposed numerous solutions that could allow jumps back and
forth in time, with these alternative theories having quite a major flaw: finding a way back.
Astronomer Frank Tipler proposed a mechanism that rolls matter 10 times the sun’s mass,
into a long dense cylinder to create a black hole.
Another Theoretical Physicist from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology Amos Ori, also
suggests a time machine made out of curved space time, a donut shaped vacuum surrounded
by a sphere of normal matter.
This time-donut spacecraft, has the ability to manipulate gravitational fields at will,
to create an area with a warp where time lines close on themselves.
However, these concepts of course, are all theoretical, and as far as science is can
tell, there’s no way a person could survive the kind of gravitational pulling and pushing
that these solutions require.
These concepts are also currently beyond our immediate technological reach, so whether
we can witness humanity having the capability of these incredible feats, only TIME WILL
TELL.
So, what are your thoughts on the possibility of time travel?
Let us know in the comments below.
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