Time machine – a myth or a reality?

If we ever build a time machine?

There is probably no other such thrilling topics in the world, like time travel. For centuries, mankind not only interested in its value, etc., but dreamed of a time machine. As a result, many well-known science-fiction writers have created an incredibly interesting novels and short stories about time travel, which became real bestsellers.

But if we ever create a time machine and go into the past or future? Whether it is possible in principle, or is it all a figment of our imagination and dreams of scientists and science fiction writers? You will not believe it, but today we know how to build a time machine. So now it’s a matter of time – when we finally create a real time machine and go into the distant future.

In September 2015 cosmonaut Gennady Padalka returned to Earth from his latest, the sixth flight into space. The day he broke the world record time held by a person outside the earth’s atmosphere. This astronaut was in space a total of 879 days. It’s 2.5 years in orbit! During this time spent orbiting the Earth at high speed, cosmonaut Gennady Padalka was a real time traveler, once again experiencing the theory of General relativity in action.

When was the last time Padalka returned to Earth, he is, in fact, turned out to be in the future. True, he was in the future only 1/44 of a second. It is so come time for all 879 days spent orbiting the Earth, compared with the time for all of us, who spends all this time on Earth. That is literally cosmonaut Gennady Padalka during all of their flight time traveling… into the future.

As a result, our Russian cosmonaut was a fraction of a second younger than all those who remained all this time on Earth. As you can see, similar to the time travel was very simple and was not associated with the use of the loaded plutonium for the DeLorean car that became famous after the release of the film trilogy “Back to the future”.

The secret of Gennady journey in time – high speed in Earth orbit where time runs faster. In fact, if our astronaut was able to move in space, all 879 days at the speed of light, he landed on the Ground, would be in the future in the literal sense, because during this period the Earth would have passed many years.

That is, according to the theory of relativity, the higher your speed, the slower flowing time for you. Accordingly, if you move on okolosvetovyh speed, you will slow down not only time but all physical processes in the body. And back on Earth, you will find that your time on Earth much has moved forward, and your peers is noticeably aged.

As a result, since Einstein determined that time in our Universe is relative (that is for each of us, time flows differently), humanity, in fact, learned the main “ingredient” of travel in the future. We are talking about speed. So if you want to literally travel to the future right now, just have to figure out how to accelerate to okolosvetovyh speed.

How can you time travel from a scientific point of view?

Until the 20th century it was believed that time is immutable and that for each of us it runs in the same way, that is, that it is absolutely in the Universe. Accordingly, it was accepted that time travel is impossible. In 1680-ies Isaac Newton began to think about the nature of time, finding that time flows independently of external forces and your location. As a result, for many years the scientific community had based all the teachings of Newton concerning the motion of bodies and over time.

But two centuries later the scientific world was expecting a revolution in knowledge.

In 1905, the year of the young scientist albert Einstein developed the special theory of relativity, using as the basis of his theory of General relativity. Einstein identified many new concepts associated with time.

He found that the time in the Universe is elastic and depends on the speed, deceleration or acceleration depending on how fast the object moves or people.

In 1971 an experiment was conducted, which confirmed that the time on Earth is slower than for those moving over her with greater speed. The higher above Ground we are moving with greater speed, the faster for us, time flows.

During this experiment, scientists sent a flight of four devices to an atomic clock (cesium atomic clock). This watch is circled around the Earth. Next, the clocks were compared with the same clock, which at this moment were on the Ground. The experiment has confirmed Einstein’s theory that time for objects or people flying at speed over the Earth, flows faster. So, as a result of comparison of the clock it became clear that watch to orbit around the Earth, gone on a nanosecond ahead compared to the clock placed on the Ground during the experiment.

By the way, your smartphones, there is one interesting technology that also confirms Einstein’s theory.

We are talking about embedded in our phones a sat NAV (GPS or GLONASS system), which with the help of satellites orbiting the Earth, receives the signal about the location on the ground of our smartphone.

Because of the fact that satellites in orbit are moving at high speed and far away from the Earth, it turns out that for them time moves faster than our smartphone throughout the Land. The result is occasionally necessary to synchronize the time of navigation equipment on the Ground and in the electronics used in satellites. Otherwise satellites would have incorrectly identified our location.

By the way, the time for each of us is relative, Einstein calculated the exact speed of light which is 300 000 000 metres per second. Also, Einstein established that the speed limit in the Universe. That is, according to Einstein’s theory nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.

The last idea of the great scientist and thinker was that gravity also slows down time. Einstein established that time runs faster where weaker gravity. For example, on the Earth, the Sun and Jupiter, time flows slower than in free space because the planets have more gravity (gravity) that affects the passage of time. Accordingly, the passage of time, as you can see, not only affects the speed of an object in space, but the force of gravity.

For example, the time on the summit of Everest is flowing faster than the bottom. If you take the atomic clock, some of which place at the top of the mountain, while others will leave to lie at the foot, twenty-four hours watch, located at the top, going to nanosecond forward. That is, in fact, a clock on mount Everest will make the journey to the future. However, a negligible time. This is possible due to the fact that the force of gravity at the top of the mountains will be weaker than at the foot.

The time machine of the subatomic world – is Already a reality

But why did the Russian cosmonaut was in the future only 1/44 of a second? The fact that he was moving in the orbit of the Earth 879 days at the speed of 27 000 km/h. As you can see, compared to the speed of light where time stops the speed in earth orbit is negligible to literally send a spaceman into hundreds of years into the future. In fact, the astronaut made the jump into the future for a negligible time.

Now let’s see what happens if we create a spaceship that can fly faster than geostationary objects, which today are orbiting the Earth. No, as you see, we don’t mean the commercial airliner is able to fly at speed of 1000 km/hour, or a rocket flying to the ISS at a speed of 40 000 km/h. Let’s think about an object that could accelerate to nearly the speed of light, nearly 300 000 km per second.

I think this is impossible in our nature? It turns out, no. Of course, talking about a large object which can be accelerated to okolosvetovyh speed is still very, very early. But we have learned to accelerate to the speed of light subatomic particles, literally sending them into the distant future. We are talking about the high-tech project of scientists from many countries of the world in the history of mankind – the large hadron Collider, which is able to accelerate subatomic particles to nearly the speed of light.

You will not believe it, but this particle accelerator capable of accelerating protons up to 99,999999% of the speed of light. At this speed, the relative time is moving at approximately 6 900 times slower than their stationary observers.

So, Yes, we learned how to send the atoms in the future. Moreover, the scientists doing this already in the last decade, quite successfully. But to send a man into the future is another matter.

But most interesting is that given the fact that scientists regularly moved particles at the speed of light, conceptual to send a man to travel into the future possible. The fact that the man’s journey to the future is really possible and not prohibited by any law of physics.

In fact, in order to, for example, to send a man at 3018 today enough to put him in a spaceship and accelerate the Shuttle up to 99.995 percent the speed of light.

Suppose this ship is created. So imagine you sit in such a super ship that is sent to a planet located at a distance of 500 light years from us (for example, on a recently discovered planet, similar to Earth, Kepler 186f, which is available from us at a distance of 500 light years). For those who do not know or do not remember, recall that 500 light years is the distance that light will overcome 500 years of their journey. Knowing the speed of light, can calculate what this incredible distance at which the space telescope Kepler was able to detect the planet, with characteristics resembling the Earth.

So now let’s imagine that you got in a space ship that flies to the planet Kepler 186f. Next, your ship accelerates to the speed of light and flies for 500 years, moving at nearly the speed of light. Approaching the planet, your ship turns around and flies back to Earth for another 500 years on the same okolosvetovyh speed.

In the end, the whole journey will take about 1000 years. When the ship returns to Earth, it will be the year 3018.

But wait, how can you survive in this space ship for 1000 years? Because people can not live so long?

Here comes to the rescue and the theory of relativity. The thing is that when you move 500 years (according to earth standards) in the direction of the distant cousin of the Earth at the speed of light, time will flow slower than for all the inhabitants of the planet.

So, when driving at speed okolosvetovyh your watch on the ship and all your body processes will slow down. For example, your clock on the spaceship runs at 1/100 of the speed of the clock on Earth. That is, overcoming the distance of 500 light years and back, you’re only 10 years, whereas on Earth during your trip will be 1000 years.

But this is only theory and imagination. Yes, as you can see, theoretically time travel is possible. It really is. Unfortunately, between theory and reality there is always a huge gap. Because today to build a space ship that could accelerate to nearly the speed of light, we can’t. So how do we overcome the problem by creating a time machine?

How soon humanity will be able to build a ship that can move at the speed of light?

As you can see, to be poisoned in the future, we need a spacecraft that can accelerate to okolosvetovyh speed. However, exercise is very hard. After all, there are huge engineering obstacles. Firstly, humanity today is still far from being able to build such spacecraft capable of moving at the speed of light.

The fact that today the fastest spacecraft ever created by mankind, is solar probe, “Parker”, which will soon be launched into space. This space probe will be able to accelerate to a maximum speed of 450,000 miles per hour (724204,8 km/h). Yes, this is the fastest object that man has created throughout its history. But compared with the speed of light this speed is negligible. For example, with such speed you could from Philadelphia to get to Washington in just 1 second. But this time, the light will overcome the same distance 8 times.

Now imagine how much energy you need to accelerate a spaceship to the speed of light. What, then fuel is best to use to get incredible energy, which would disperse the ship to okolosvetovyh speed?

Some scientists and astrophysicists suggest to use for such a spacecraft high performance antimatter fuel (the fuel on the basis of antimatter). By the way, many scientists believe that this fuel can indeed be potentially invaluable in interstellar travel.

But in addition to fuel, there is still a big problem for interstellar travel. We are talking about the safety of people that travel at the speed of light. Indeed, such a spacecraft would have to carry enough supplies for the crew members who went to interstellar journey (food, water, medicines, etc.). But to ensure a long journey in space, the ship must be large enough. In the result the bigger the ship, the more he will need energy to accelerate to the speed of light.

Including when you get up to the speed of light, we must note that the acceleration should be smooth, because otherwise the people on the spacecraft will get when overclocking too much overload, which is dangerous for life.

But then, to disperse the ship to okolosvetovyh speed, it will take too much time. In fact, the vehicle will slowly accelerate, adding a little speed to overload, long experienced ship’s crew, does not exceed 1g (usually while on Earth, we are experiencing this overload).

Thus, in order to accelerate to the speed of light, you may need a longer period that will significantly increase travel time. And in the end minimizes possible travel time in the future.

For example, using our example in the journey for a distance of 500 light years at a smooth acceleration, in which the overload will not exceed 1g, our mission is on the clock on a space ship 10 years and 24 years. Nevertheless, when moving at okolosvetovyh speed for a distance of 500 light years and back you will still be able to get at 3018 year.

Unfortunately, to create such an incredible space transportation funds with similar spec humanity will need a lot of time, resources and, of course, a lot of money. But the same can be said about other large-scale ambitious projects, which several decades ago seemed impossible. We have in mind a project to detect gravitational waves and a large Collider of Hadera. Today these projects are already a reality and no one is surprised.

So who knows what awaits us in the coming decades. It is quite possible, the following scientific mega-project will be the creation of a time machine (a space ship can accelerate to the speed of light).

Is it possible to travel back in time?

But in the described time machine that may someday become a reality, the journey to the future is real-time. That is, if you sit in a spaceship today and accelerate to the speed of light, time your hours and hours of people on Earth will go in reality. The only difference will be that your watch while traveling will slow down.

The result is a spaceship that represents the time machine, in fact, throws you to the future in real time, but not in reverse. That is this space ship you will not be able to go back in time. But is it possible at least theoretically to travel through time into the past?

Some scientists believe (not all, for example, Hawking argued that travel to the past impossible) that travel to the past is also possible. But you need to find a place where you can get around the laws of physics.

The most interesting places in the Universe can be.

For example, theoretically travel to the past is possible through the wormhole (mole norm in space-time), through which you can get in the past.

The problem is, to find in space such a place where there’s a wormhole connecting a rift in the space-time. Unfortunately, in most cases, these holes disappear in a nanosecond after its birth.

Meanwhile, according to the theory of relativity such wormholes are real. The fact that such wormholes can be formed as a tunnel crossing through the curved space-time. Theoretical through these holes it is possible to send a light beam to a particular point in space. Therefore, theoretically a beam of light can be sent into the past.

Fiction? Not at all. Look at the sky at night and you will see the light of thousands of stars that reached your eyes only today, despite the fact that many stars have ceased to exist billions of years ago. The fact is that these stars are at immense distance from us, as well, given that our universe is constantly expanding, thus, the light of many stars came to us from the past.

Thus, as you can see, theoretically to send in the future someone much more real than in the past. Therefore, in the future, most likely, scientists will first ready to send someone to the future, not the past. Unfortunately, in the short term it’s not going to happen. Because mankind it will be necessary to come up with more supertoplivo capable of accelerating the ship to okolosvetovyh speed.

However, as you can see, the journey to the future is real and possible. But it needs huge funding. According to many scientists, if today, many States came together and funded the project to create a spacecraft that can move at the speed of light, then after 20 years, such a ship would become a reality.

In the meantime, to enjoy the time machine, we can only review the well-known films about time travel and also to read a variety of popular fiction books.

Many movies actually show you what to look for cosmic time travel. For example, look at the old original movie planet of the apes where the astronauts thought he was on another planet similar to Earth, where instead of people in control monkeys.

But in fact, the astronauts arrived on the same planet Earth in the future where for some reason the power on the planet captured apes. In fact, in this film, the astronauts arrived in the future of planet Earth, as their journey in space was carried out at the speed of light. This film accurately displays the special theory of relativity and shows how one may go in the future.