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Is time travel even possible? An astrophysicist explains the science behind the science fiction
The Conversation ^ | November 13, 2023 8.33am EST | Adi Foord

Posted on 11/14/2023 1:28:04 PM PST by Red Badger

Have you ever dreamed of traveling through time, like characters do in science fiction movies? For centuries, the concept of time travel has captivated people’s imaginations. Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time, just like you move between different places. In movies, you might have seen characters using special machines, magical devices or even hopping into a futuristic car to travel backward or forward in time.

But is this just a fun idea for movies, or could it really happen?

The question of whether time is reversible remains one of the biggest unresolved questions in science. If the universe follows the laws of thermodynamics, it may not be possible. The second law of thermodynamics states that things in the universe can either remain the same or become more disordered over time.

It’s a bit like saying you can’t unscramble eggs once they’ve been cooked. According to this law, the universe can never go back exactly to how it was before. Time can only go forward, like a one-way street.

Time is relative

However, physicist Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity suggests that time passes at different rates for different people. Someone speeding along on a spaceship moving close to the speed of light – 671 million miles per hour! – will experience time slower than a person on Earth.

People have yet to build spaceships that can move at speeds anywhere near as fast as light, but astronauts who visit the International Space Station orbit around the Earth at speeds close to 17,500 mph. Astronaut Scott Kelly has spent 520 days at the International Space Station, and as a result has aged a little more slowly than his twin brother – and fellow astronaut – Mark Kelly. Scott used to be 6 minutes younger than his twin brother. Now, because Scott was traveling so much faster than Mark and for so many days, he is 6 minutes and 5 milliseconds younger.

Time isn’t the same everywhere.

Some scientists are exploring other ideas that could theoretically allow time travel. One concept involves wormholes, or hypothetical tunnels in space that could create shortcuts for journeys across the universe. If someone could build a wormhole and then figure out a way to move one end at close to the speed of light – like the hypothetical spaceship mentioned above – the moving end would age more slowly than the stationary end. Someone who entered the moving end and exited the wormhole through the stationary end would come out in their past.

However, wormholes remain theoretical: Scientists have yet to spot one. It also looks like it would be incredibly challenging to send humans through a wormhole space tunnel.

Paradoxes and failed dinner parties

There are also paradoxes associated with time travel. The famous “grandfather paradox” is a hypothetical problem that could arise if someone traveled back in time and accidentally prevented their grandparents from meeting. This would create a paradox where you were never born, which raises the question: How could you have traveled back in time in the first place? It’s a mind-boggling puzzle that adds to the mystery of time travel.

Famously, physicist Stephen Hawking tested the possibility of time travel by throwing a dinner party where invitations noting the date, time and coordinates were not sent out until after it had happened. His hope was that his invitation would be read by someone living in the future, who had capabilities to travel back in time. But no one showed up.

As he pointed out: “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.”

Telescopes are time machines

Interestingly, astrophysicists armed with powerful telescopes possess a unique form of time travel. As they peer into the vast expanse of the cosmos, they gaze into the past universe. Light from all galaxies and stars takes time to travel, and these beams of light carry information from the distant past. When astrophysicists observe a star or a galaxy through a telescope, they are not seeing it as it is in the present, but as it existed when the light began its journey to Earth millions to billions of years ago.

Telescopes are a kind of time machine – they let you peer into the past.

NASA’s newest space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, is peering at galaxies that were formed at the very beginning of the Big Bang, about 13.7 billion years ago.

While we aren’t likely to have time machines like the ones in movies anytime soon, scientists are actively researching and exploring new ideas. But for now, we’ll have to enjoy the idea of time travel in our favorite books, movies and dreams.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.


TOPICS: Astronomy; History; Science; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: astrophysicist; timetravel; wboopi
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To: EvilCapitalist

Getting hit by a car in Manchester England might do, painful as it sounds.

At least the Brit version of Life On Mars was original.


21 posted on 11/14/2023 2:41:47 PM PST by wally_bert (I cannot be sure for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure..)
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To: GreenHornet

We always try to meet up at Times Square at New Years Day, at noon.. See you there. I’ll be wearing a green party hat.


22 posted on 11/14/2023 2:42:36 PM PST by timestax
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To: Red Badger

23 posted on 11/14/2023 2:43:42 PM PST by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: Red Badger

No. Niven’s Law. In any universe where time travel is possible and invented, the users of time travel will alter the universe’s history until they create a universe where time travel is never invented.

That’s the universe we live in now. Time travel will never be invented.


24 posted on 11/14/2023 2:44:45 PM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: CIB-173RDABN

“The moon circles the earth”

Nope. The moon and earth orbit about their common center of mass.


25 posted on 11/14/2023 2:57:38 PM PST by TexasGator
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To: CIB-173RDABN
The reason time travel is impossible is that we are never in one spot with in the universe, we are in constant motion.

You’re close. Time travel is impossible because time doesn’t “physically” exist. Time is simply a measurement. What does it measure? Motion. And, yes, motion exists.

26 posted on 11/14/2023 3:05:05 PM PST by Flycatcher (God speaks to us, through the supernal lightness of birds, in a special type of poetry.)
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To: Red Badger

Then there’s project looking glass. Remote viewing.


27 posted on 11/14/2023 3:36:38 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Red Badger

>Yes, time travel is possible.

>You are doing it right now.................

What we’re doing is a one-way trip to our Final Destination. We can’t do time tourism.


28 posted on 11/14/2023 3:37:45 PM PST by Pearls Before Swine
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To: struggle

Exactly. If it were possible to time travel to the past, there is no way the RATS would have let Donald Trump, or Ronald Reagan become President.


29 posted on 11/14/2023 3:39:30 PM PST by EvilCapitalist (81 million votes my ass.)
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To: Flycatcher

“Time is simply a measurement. What does it measure? Motion. And, yes, motion exists.”

Hmm. That is interesting but motion compared to what?

Einstein stated that any reference frame of view is as good as any other. My reference frame is centered on me with the rest of the universe in motion around me. I am sitting on my couch and the only thing in the universe not at motion but somehow time seem to move forward for me.

I think acceleration, not motion or velocity, changes our rate of moving through time compared to others with different acceleration.


30 posted on 11/14/2023 3:52:09 PM PST by bosco24
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To: Flycatcher

You’re close. Time travel is impossible because time doesn’t “physically” exist. Time is simply a measurement. What does it measure? Motion. And, yes, motion exists.

I can accept “close” since I am a High School drop out (quit in 11th grade in 1964 to join the Army where I got to travel and see the world, at least Vietnam). LOL :-)


31 posted on 11/14/2023 3:59:46 PM PST by CIB-173RDABN (I am not an expert in anything, and my opinion is just that, an opinion. I may be wrong.)
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To: bosco24
I think acceleration, not motion or velocity, changes our rate of moving through time

We don’t move through time. We move. Time measures the velocity (acceleration) so we can make sense of it (and utilize it).

32 posted on 11/14/2023 4:01:52 PM PST by Flycatcher (God speaks to us, through the supernal lightness of birds, in a special type of poetry.)
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To: Red Badger
I filled my car with thyme and drove in reverse.

Does that count?

33 posted on 11/14/2023 4:21:45 PM PST by who_would_fardels_bear (What is left around which to circle the wagons?)
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To: EvilCapitalist

Even farther, no Spinoza, no Aristotle, no von Mises.


34 posted on 11/14/2023 4:24:49 PM PST by struggle
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To: Red Badger

Shatner’s UnXplained(sp) has a episode on his series on history channel that I saw a few nights ago, called The Time Travelers. The show talked about the US Navy experiment involving an incident with a destroyer (US Eldredge) and it’s involvement in a time travel attempt (The Philadelphia Experiment). It is worth watching if you’re interested in that type of thing.


35 posted on 11/14/2023 5:03:24 PM PST by matthew fuller (PEDOCRAT Cho Bye-Done, traitor forever.)
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To: struggle

Of course if Time Travel were possible, not only would I make sure No Hitler, but No Karl Marx, and No Mohammed.


36 posted on 11/14/2023 5:42:23 PM PST by EvilCapitalist (81 million votes my ass.)
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To: Red Badger; golux; Phinneous; MadMax, the Grinning Reaper; SJackson
License plate = ID. The DMC knows that she's:

OUTATIME:

Ancient Greek Orpheus with a violin (invented in the 16th century*)
rather than a lyre. A 17th-century painting by Cesare Gennari

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anachronism

In Greek mythology, Orpheus (/ˈɔːrfiːəs, ˈɔːrfjuːs/; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: [or.pʰeú̯s]) was a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, and even descended into the underworld of Hades, to recover his lost wife Eurydice.[1]

>>>

Greeks of the Classical age venerated Orpheus as the greatest of all poets and musicians; it was said that while Hermes had invented the lyre, Orpheus perfected it. Poets such as Simonides of Ceos said that Orpheus's music and singing could charm the birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance,[15] and divert the course of rivers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus

Ancient Greek Orpheus with a violin (invented in the 16th century) rather than a lyre.

YET,

lyre = kinnor = violin

Kinnor (Hebrew: כִּנּוֹר‎ kīnnōr) is an ancient Israelite musical instrument in the yoke lutes family, the first one to be mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.

Its exact identification is unclear, but in the modern day it is generally translated as "harp" or "lyre",[1]:440 and associated with a type of lyre depicted in Israelite imagery, particularly the Bar Kokhba coins.[1]:440 It has been referred to as the "national instrument" of the Jewish people,[2] and modern luthiers have created reproduction lyres of the kinnor based on this imagery.

The word has subsequently come to mean violin in Modern Hebrew.

the "national instrument" of the Jewish people...

In modern Hebrew a kinnor is a violin or fiddle and a nevel is a harp or lyre.

In the Bible they are found together.

In the Bible, "kinnor" is spelled without the yud.

As such, kinnor [כנור] + nevel [נבל]

= 358 = Messiah [משיח].

There's a Stradivarius for that, a kinnor.

*invented in the 16th century -- odd how that's also the claim for the midrash about little Serach playing her harp (kinnor) for her grandfather Jacob, to inform him that Joseph was still alive and living in Mitzraim.

Sefer HaYashar (midrash)

Serach bat Asher - The Transmitter of Secrets

(It's for a good cause.)

37 posted on 11/14/2023 5:51:03 PM PST by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with Mars ♂️, aka every man)
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To: SkyDancer

The present is a gift.........


38 posted on 11/14/2023 6:16:50 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: All

If time travel is possible, then either the human race dies out or we have a police state in the future, as we never see time travelers from our future.

Or perhaps we never solve the puzzle.

Somebody is sure to say, well perhaps the future travelers are able to disguise their presence. But you have to believe that if a lot are doing that, at least once or twice they would fail or forget.

Or perhaps the years up to 2024 are off limits, but some future year is not off limits and suddenly — time travelers up to your eyeballs.


39 posted on 11/14/2023 6:23:58 PM PST by Peter ODonnell (Prayers up for Jim Robinson and family ... an island of sanity in a sea of madness. )
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To: Red Badger; golux; Phinneous; MadMax, the Grinning Reaper; SJackson

Time travel:

I should have added that section (Berakhot 3b 20-29) about how David knew it was midnight. There was a debate over what time was what.

Source verses:

Pslam 119.62. At midnight I will rise to give thanks to you because of your righteous judgments:
Psalm 119.147. I rise before dawn, and I cry out; my hope is in your word:

Torah [תורה] = conspiracy [קונספירציה]

= 611 (119 upside-down)

Ergo, he was up with the Torah before dawn (aurora = "dawn").

HAARP: High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program
Alaska: "Land of the Midnight Sun" [ ארץ שמש החצות] = 1440

= 60 min x 24 hrs

Which is to say, when *isn't* it midnight in David's house. Or dawn, for that matter.

(It's for a good cause.)

To the chief Musician, according to Ayeleth HaShahar, a Psalm of David..

40 posted on 11/14/2023 6:35:35 PM PST by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with Mars ♂️, aka every man)
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