Cool science stuff

Astronauts returning to earth from lengthy missions have aged tiny fractions of a second less than people on the ground, due to having spent several months in relative motion at a measurable fraction of the speed of light, so in effect they have traveled a fraction of a second into the future.

In order for this effect to be noticeable you would have to travel at a substantial fraction of the speed of light.

Right now the fastest any human has ever traveled has been 24,791 mph (the crew of Apollo 13). The speed of light is 670,615,200 mph (186,282 miles per second times 60 seconds times 60 minutes), so that Apollo 13 speed represents a nifty 3.696754860313336 x 10^-5 of the speed of light, so in other words, 3.69 thousandths of one percent.

 

Time dilation would make it possible for passengers in a fast-moving vehicle to travel further into the future while aging very little, in that their great speed slows down the rate of passage of on-board time. That is, the ship's clock (and according to relativity, any human traveling with it) shows less elapsed time than the clocks of observers on earth. For sufficiently high speeds the effect is dramatic. For example, one year of travel might correspond to ten years at home. Indeed, a constant 1 g acceleration would permit humans to travel through the entire known Universe in one human lifetime. The space travelers could return to Earth billions of years in the future.

A more likely use of this effect would be to enable humans to travel to nearby stars without spending their entire lives aboard the ship. However, any such application of time dilation during interstellar travel would require the use of some new, advanced method of propulsion. The Orion Project has been the only major attempt toward this idea.

-Wikipedia

I can think of a gazillion practical applications for this, especially for women.

Biological clock's ticking, but no Mr. Right? ...Hop a spaceship for a year and try again with the men 15 years younger when you land.

Let's say a woman's husband "trades up," dumping her for a younger woman. She hops aboard a rocket ship 'spa' for some anti-aging treatments... returns 6 months later... which is 20 years later on Earth. She's now younger and prettier than the woman her husband dumped her for.

 

Yes, even low level space travel has already shown that there is a form of time travel. Time on the moon is moving slower than time on Earth.

However, working from the common idea of time travel, it might only be possible in reverse.

Quantum mechanics says all things that can happen do happen. So in every possible quantum moment all possible occurrences happen, branching off into multiple continuing realities.

If you move forward in time, you are actually moving into one possible reality within an infinitude of realities. There's no way to distinguish a 'right' future because all possible futures exist or will exist.

The past, however, already has a trail of quantum moments one can follow.

 

To put it another way:

The astronaut on the moon is not traveling into the future, but on his/her return is traveling into the past.

 

WHOOOOAAAAAAAAA!

 

Marvin Barnes just took a tire iron to someone and doesn't know why.

 

We should have a celestial treat by the end of this year: Comet ISON.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/10/comet-ison-2013-mars_n_2441899.html

The only one I remember seeing was Hyakutake in 1996. It was spectacular.

 

That is cool. I hadn't heard of that.
I'm marking my calendar and hoping it's as bright as they predict.

 

Here's a NASA hat-trick for your weekend.

NASA finds Earth's closest twin yet
http://news.yahoo.com/nasas-search-another-earth-narrows-meet-closest-twin-141000904.html

NASA turns astronaut trash into radiation shield
http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-turns-astronaut-trash-space-radiation-shield-093357084.html

The James Webb Telescope reportedly back on track and on budget
http://news.yahoo.com/nasas-next-flagship-space-telescope-back-track-budget-225057312.html

 

Today is the most depressing day of the year -- except for the fact that it's not.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/brain-flapping/2013/jan/21/blue-monday-depressing-day-nonsense-science

 

Math can tell you how long everything should live.

http://gizmodo.com/5978304/theres-a-math-formula-that-tells-us-how-long-everything-will-live

 

Very cool. I've actually read about that before.
Interesting that it can be applied to a society, city, country, etc. as a living organism.
Also lends itself to viewing these larger entities as living organism. In some circles, the universe itself is starting to be viewed as a living organism.
Which opens some really interesting liens of thought.