Some people live their lives focused on the present. Then there are those who constantly look ahead, striving to achieve greater things in the future.
Regardless of how you look at life, one thing is the same for all of us: time. Time is a train that keeps on chugging no matter what; we are all on this moving train whether we like it or not. What if it was somehow possible to get off the train and board a slower train where time moved slower? Since the train represents time, you age slower on the second train. Once you reboard the faster train, youd be in the future relative to when you first got off the first train; this is the concept of time travel. Most people at one time or another have been exposed to this concept, though usually through television and movies. In reality, time travel is strictly a theory if not a possiblity. Albert Einsteins theory of relativity opens the door towards the possiblity of time travel. One possible means of time travel is through black holes. On the other side of a black hole is a white hole, while wormholes connect the two.
Despite criticism and lack of support, physics tells us that time travel is indeed possible and that the answers lie within the phenomena of space. First, we must look at Einsteins theory of relativity. Einstein proved that time can travel at different speeds, and that the speed at which time travels depends upon the state of motion of the observer. The key here is that time is relative to speed and position. For instance, if a traveller decides to travel from the earth to the sun at twice the speed of light, it will take him 250 years to get there since light takes 500 years to reach the sun. Meanwhile, a person observing from earth will age 500 years once the traveller arrives at the sun.
When the traveller returns to earth, he will be able to see himself at the sun. This example illustrates the illusion of time; time for the traveller has slowed down due to the remarkable speed of his spaceship. The earth is now 1,000 years older, while the traveller is only 500 years older. Thus, time moves along on earth as usual. Much like the train example, the earth is like the first train, while traveling to the sun is the second train.
Einsteins theory proves that time travel is possible, lets look at the phenomena that takes us even closer. A black holes is formed from the gravitational collapse of a massive star. Once it has been created, gravitational forces continue pulling in space debris and other matter; this adds to the mass of the core, making it more powerful. Because of this, black holes compress anything that enters its clutches. So what would happen if someone decided to enter a black hole? Black holes act like a one way street in that they only allow objects to fall into them, not out of them. If someone decided to enter a black hole, his or her molecules would compress to the point where the portion of his or her body that is passing through the hole would be compressed like a noodle. This is known as the spaghetti effect. As of today, black holes have been found in space, but far too small and untable. If black holes act as an entrance, white holes act as an exit. White holes, on the other hand, are much like black holes in the way they are formed.
The difference is that objects are pushed away from the center instead of towards the center. An interesting point here is that white holes expand matter due to its negative gravitational properties. At this point however, white holes are purely theoretical. A black hole and a white hole are connected by a wormhole, the key to time travel. A wormhole connects two points in space with no regard to time. If you picture space as a piece of paper, a black hole and a white hole would be represented by two holes on the surface. If the paper is folded in half, the two holes would connect somehow. Picture a funnel-shaped throat connecting the two holes; this is what is called a wormhole. An object entering a black hole will shoot through the wormhole at the speed of light and exit though the white hole at another location in space. This means that this object will end up somewhere in the future relative to an observer outside of the black hole.
Unfortunately, the object could end up at virtually any point on the piece of paper, without any means of returning. The only way for the object to return to its origin is by finding another black hole to take it back to its starting point. One serious problem associated with the idea of time travel to the past is commonly known as the grandparent paradox. Suppose you decide to travel back in time and kill your grandparents so they dont have children. What would happen to you? Would you simply vanish into thin air? If you did vanish, then no one would be there to kill your grandparents; therefore, your would be born again. Another problem that arises is if time travel is possible, then it should be existent in the future. So how come we havent been visited by travellers from the future? Some believe we mistake time travellers for U.F.O.s. Based on what we know, time travel is only possible into the future, since the past has already occurred. These are very difficult questions to answer.
At this point, time travel remains a theory. The possibility of time travel is validated by physics despite constant skepticism on our part. It is coming closer to becoming an exciting reality with every passing day. We are all time travellers in some sense because of aging. We are all moving towards our future, according to decisions we make in the present and made in the past. As for today’s world, time travel is only theoretical; literal time travelers are still science fiction. The creative ideas that arise from these theories and discoveries are endless.
