Einstein’s Relativity Theories Permit Future Time Travel, With 1937 Equations Suggesting Paths to the Past
Updated
Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Jul 28
Einstein’s Relativity Theories Permit Future Time Travel, With 1937 Equations Suggesting Paths to the Past
3 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Jul 28
Summary
A 5-year space trip at 97% of light speed would leave a traveler returning to an Earth about 20 years older, illustrating how special relativity allows one-way travel into the future.
Scott Kelly’s 11 months on the International Space Station made him about 13 milliseconds younger than his twin, because motion—and gravity under general relativity—change how fast time passes.
General relativity also admits closed timelike curves, mathematical paths that could loop a traveler back into the past; Dutch mathematician Willem Jacob van Stockum first identified such a possibility in 1937.
Roy Kerr’s 1963 solution for rotating masses suggests past-directed paths near black holes, but the relevant inner region is considered unstable and likely collapses under small disturbances.
The article frames time travel as a consequence of Einstein’s 1905 and 1915 theories, while stressing that backward travel remains theoretical and dependent on exotic spacetime solutions.