Time Travel!
Is it possible to travel in time?
Yes! There are two ways.
Method 1:
On another page we examine Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which shows that if you can move fast enough, at speeds approaching the speed of light, then time will slow down for you.
The implications of this theory (which quite properly should be called a 'Law', since it has been proven ... see more here), are many, but for our purposes, there is one important result: we can travel into the future!
Would you like to 'arrive' in the year 2698? Then all you need to do is travel somewhere for a few years at 90% of the seed of light or more, and return. When you get back, it will be 700 years later!
Visit our 'Twin Paradox' page to download a free program that illustrates this amazing phenomenon.
The only catch? We don't yet have the technology to build a spacecraft that will go that fast. But it is possible! In fact, we even have feasible designs for such craft. If you're interested in learning more, visit the website 'We Are Not Alone', in the 'Travel' section, for some fascinating information.
Method 2:
Can we travel into the past?
Unfortunately, physical travel seems to be impossible. However, it is possible to see and hear the past!
Because light and radio waves travel at a finite (albeit very large) speed, they take time to get where they are going. Over distances as large as between stars, light and radio waves make take years to make the journey.
What this means is that when we look at nearby stars in the sky, we are looking into the past...seeing them the way they existed when the light left them years ago.
We can now, with our largest telescopes, just barely make out the images of large planets orbiting some nearby stars. We are seeing those planets the way they looked years ago. With larger telescopes, it may be possible to watch what went on, on those planets, years ago...we can watch the past of some other civilization, should it exist.
How far can we look into the past? Well, the most distant things we can see are tens of billions of years old. We can look through a telescope and see the past... just about as far back as the beginning of the universe itself!
More information on this, and other, astronomical topics can also be
found at 'We Are Not Alone'.
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