IS TIME TRAVEL REALLY POSSIBLE?

I think it’s indeed a quite interesting science topic, it has been more than one century since the first assumptions of time travel has been made, and we have indeed made a lot of progress but unfortunately we are yet a long to reach. Lets start this topic by understanding the term time itself.

First of all what is time? What a foolish question indeed u might be thinking. The simplest answer may be “time is something that we deals with in our day to day life, it is a measure of intervals or duration”. Is it all about time? No, not at all. It is a thing that we all are very familiar with, we knows everything about time but we can’t explain it ,the situation is pretty much disgusting I know. There are indeed a lot of definitions for time but none of them are quite enough to explain it wholly. One among the definitions which is perhaps understandable is “ It is a dimension in which events can be ordered from past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and intervals among them”. It is just one among hundreds of available definitions indeed and quite simpler one.

TIME TRAVEL

It is indeed a topic which lots and lots of people around the globe are interested in. Some might be familiar with Star Trek and Doctor Who science fiction series in which people enters some sort of a machine and ends up in arriving in the past or future. Wow its quite simple, isn’t it. Yes it indeed is ,but only in stories presently. Maybe in future it will be easy. Time travel is actually a concept of movement of particles between certain points in time or simply understood as a concept in which people are able to move backward into past or forward into future. Hypothetically it is possible through help of a time machine which in the form of vehicle or portal connecting between distant points in time.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Credit goes to Sir Albert Einstein, it all began with Einstein’s Special theory of Relativity proposed in 1905, till known as the best theory discovered by the mankind. It relates the nature of space and time through an entity called space-time. Here time is considered as a fourth dimension along with other three spatial dimensions. It has replaced the conventional notion of an absolute universal time with the notion of time that is dependent on reference frame and special position.

IS TIME TRAVEL REALLY POSSIBLE?

Yes it indeed is possible, infact we all are travelling through time indeed. Each and every second which elapsed is time travel, that’s why we are moving towards the future, that’s why we are aging. Being more specific we travel in time at the rate of 1 hour per hour. But the real question is can we travel faster or slower that this constant rate. Forward time travel has mathematically proved to be possible. One way to achieve future time travel is to travel at the speed of light, quite impossible as of now. Even if we achieve a fraction of the speed of light, time travel can happen but the observations will be very minute.

WHAT IF I TELLS U THAT TIME TRAVEL ALREADY HAPPENED

WTF? Yes it indeed has happened. Sergial Krikalev, a Russian cosmonaut holds the record for the longest amount of time spent in space. He spent 803 days and 9 hours in international space station(ISS), ISS travels around the earth at a speed of 7660 m/s. As a result of the high speed and time he spent in space it was observed that he reached back earth 0.02 seconds earlier than the actual time elapsed. Still the observations were very negligible because the speed was very very less compared to speed of light.

TIME DILATION

It can be understood from the definition, “time slows down for objects which are in motion”. Time dilation is the fundamental behind time travel and it is what made Sergial Krikalev to go to 0.02 seconds in future. The process of time dilation is experimentally proved by experiments. One among the experiment include, using two extremely accurate and precise atomic clocks one was kept stationary and another was kept in an aircraft which was flying at very high speed. After the flight the time in both clocks were noted and it was found out that the one stationary was faster by millionth of a second. The time elapsed was found to be exactly equal to that calculated from Einstein’s relativity theory. Einstein is truly a legend isn’t he?
The phenomena of time dilation is generally understood with the help of a hypothetical example called Twins Paradox. Two new born twins were considered one of them stays at earth and the other travels to the space in an ultra speed rocket whose speed is nearly as that of speed of light. After two years in the rocket the rocket comes back the twins are reunited ,but surprisingly the travelling twin was two years old whereas the one in earth was 30 years old. Holy shit, difference of 28 years. Quite striking indeed.

POSSIBILITIES OF TIME TRAVEL

Coming back to the topic is time travel actually possible in real life? Or is it just a science fiction built up? Time travel is indeed found to be mathematically possible and is proved. But its physical existence is still under research. Let us talk about the possible ways that makes us achieve time travel.

HIGH SPEED

One of the easiest and simplest way to achieve future time travel is to travel at the speed of light or nearly around it, when you travel at speeds approaching the speed of light time slows down for you relative to the outside world. Travelling at such high speeds is quite impossible presently. Even if the speed of light is achieved somehow the amount of forces which acts will be indeed fatal. So sad isn’t it? So is the door towards time travel closed? No not at all. Happily, there are other ways through which we can achieve it.

WORMHOLES

For some, the first thing that comes to mind is the movie Interstellar, the movie is indeed bit complex I agree that u will have to see it multiple times to get a clear picture. Suppose we want to travel a very long distance through space, in actual case it may take thousands of light years which means it is impossible, there comes a wormhole in help. A wormhole is considered simply as a tunnel or portal through space-time that could create shortcuts for long journey across the universe. They actually acts as a bridge connecting two distant points in space. It is actually a solution obtained from Einstein’s field equation. An object entering one end of a wormhole would emerge almost instantly on the other end , even if the openings were separated by trillions of miles.
The basic idea if you’re very, very optimistic is that if you fiddle with the wormhole opening, you can make it not only a shortcut from a point in space to another point in space, but a shortcut from one moment in time to another moment in time.
But still problem arises, no wormhole has ever been discovered, even if found they pose a significant risk, bringing with them the threat of a sudden collapse, high levels of radiation and contact with dangerous exotic matter.

BLACKHOLES

Related to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the stronger the gravity you feel slower the time moves. To travel to the future all we need is a region of extremely strong gravity such as a black hole. The closer you get to the event horizon the slower the time moves. Hence we can just travel in time by finding a nearby black hole and spending some time near it and then returning back, but keep one thing in mind, don’t go too close, its pretty dangerous. But unfortunately the nearest black hole is hundreds of light years away.

COSMIC STRINGS

They are explained as one dimensional cracks in the universe and are some of the strangest things observed by cosmologists, they helps us to navigate through time. Cosmic strings are either infinite or occurs in loops with no ends, they are believed to contain large amount of masses it is believed that they could potentially warp the space time around them. But cosmic strings exists only in theories. Maybe we’ll find one in the near future.

SUSPENDED ANIMATION

It is completely a different concept, a simple one indeed which doesn’t involves the complexities of speed or gravity. The concept is just to slow your perception of time by slowing down or stopping your bodily process and then restarting them later. Indeed similar to hibernaton of bears to some extent.
Though completely stopping your metabolism is quite impossible presently serious research is being conducted to achieve short term hibernation state atleast for a few hours. Indeed it has been successfully induced in mice by the use of doses of Hydrogen sulphide.

OKAY WHAT ABOUT BACKWARD TIME TRAVEL

Backward time travel is strictly believed to be impossible by the scientific community. Making it likely would introduce potential hazards. It is generally understood with help of a hypothesis called Grandfather’s Paradox. Suppose you were able to go back to past and kill your grandfather before he became a dad , then how would you even ’exist’ to go back in time in the first place?
Time is considered to have an arrow and that arrow always points forward. Physicists like Stephen Hawkins argues that backward time travel is highly unlikely and even if it was possible jouney towards past was only possible upto the time in which first time machine was discovered. But one such kind is not invented yet.
Some theories like special and general relativity suggests that suitable geometries of space time make even time travel to past possible. Travelling at a speed greater than light is considered to make backwards travel possible. It is assumed that cosmic strings, traversable wormholes and alcubierre drives makes such speeds possible. Contradiction to grandfather paradox can be avoided by the theories of Many World Interpretations or Parallel Universe. The problem is that these theories are even more spookier. It says that when we travels back we reaches a virtual universe which is not real. Some says that we are even living in a virtual universe, it is just one among the infinite number of universe that exists and interaction between each other is impossible. Some might have seen the movie Coherence which implicates such a situation. It’s really spooky indeed.
I believe more discussions about the topic will make it even more spookier, so I think I shall stop this indeed. So concluding, time travel is a topic in which lots of research is being held out presently, but at this time we are not at a position to conclude that it might be physically possible or not. Some believe that the Large Hadron Collider built near Geneva can lead to the birth of wormholes which can open door towards time travel. Some other says that the wormhole born will push us towards the end of earth,quite unlikely sensibly.
Anyway what we an do is to wait till time travel is made possible or till a time machine is being discovered. Let me ask a question, what will u do if u guys got one opportunity to travel backwards or forwards in time? What I’ll probably do is to go back time and stop the basic concept that all lead to the discovery of time travel. Just kidding
Hope u’ll all share your answers and it will be pretty funny I guess. If u guys find this post interesting do upvote and resteem it. Don’t forget to follow me so that we can keep connected.