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Would you really age more slowly on a spaceship at close to light speed?
An observer traveling near the speed of light will experience time, with all its aftereffects (boredom, aging, etc.) much more slowly than an observer at rest. That’s why astronaut Scott Kelly aged ever so slightly less over the course of a year in orbit than his twin brother who stayed here on Earth.
How does a spaceship travel in space?
The simple act of accelerating something in a particular direction (the rifle bullet or hot gases from a rocket exhaust) creates an equal force acting in the opposite direction (Newton’s 3rd law). This reaction is what propels a spaceship upwards or through space, regardless of the presence of ground or atmosphere.
Why do things travel so fast in space?
The speed of an object through space reflects how much of its motion through time is being diverted. The faster it moves through space, the more its motion is being diverted away from moving through time, so time slows down.
How fast can a spaceship go in space?
The closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri. It is about 4.25 light-years away, or about 25 trillion miles (40 trillion km). The fastest ever spacecraft, the now- in-space Parker Solar Probe will reach a top speed of 450,000 mph.
What are the physical consequences of traveling at the speed of light?
Firstly, the physical consequence of traveling at the speed of light is that your mass becomes infinite and you slow down. According to relativity, the faster you move, the more mass you have. The same works on Earth when you’re driving down the freeway.
How does the distance from the sun affect the speed of spacecrafts?
Image Credit: NASA In general, the further a spacecraft gets from the Sun, the slower it will move – unless of course, the mission has been given enough velocity and rocket fuel to propel it to its destination.
How do rockets travel so fast?
Other effects such as light pressure from the Sun, though, can speed up some rockets, as can drag from an atmosphere if they’re close to a planet. To get a spacecraft to a planet such as Jupiter, you need to propel it fast enough in order to get it further from the Earth.
What happens to time as you move through space?
The faster you move through the three dimensions that define physical space, the more slowly you’re moving through the fourth dimension, time––at least relative to another object. Time is measured differently for the twin who moved through space and the twin who stayed on Earth.