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General Morphological Analysis: A general method for non-quantified modelling
Fritz Zwicky pioneered the development of morphological analysis (MA) as a method for investigating the totality of relationships contained in multi-dimensional, usually non- quantifiable problem complexes. During the past two decades, MA has...
How Did DNA Testing Children Begin?
The story behind the first maternity and paternity tests used for legal purposes. This year marks the 20th anniversary of a remarkable discovery which forever changed the legal profession. In 1985, Alec Jeffreys (now Sir Alec), a young genetics...
Radical Healing
Radical Healing: This title to a book by Rudolph Ballentine deserves more thought than we might give it. The book deserves more thought than I will give it too. It might be of interest to note that Dr. Ballentine is a Duke graduate and likely...
Sheep Have Been Cloned...Are Humans Next?
Do you enjoy watching forensic science shows like CSI? Are you interested in genetics and the intricacies of DNA? Genetic engineering that deals with the human genome and DNA has become a hot bed for discussion in recent years. Advancements in...
What Planet is Your Family From? Uranus or Neptune?
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." This is one of the most famous opening lines ever written. The author is a man consumed by horror and fascination with families and family life, a man who had 12...
 
Time travel: sci-fi?

When you look at the clear night sky, you see stars-those tiny diamonds suspended in the vast pitch-black emptiness. But stars shine because…? Our own sun, which is a star, emits light. Stars are like giant bulbs but are much more powerful.

Light travels at a speed of 3.0*108m/s in vacuum and space is mostly vacuum. In other words light can cover a mighty distance of 300 000 000m in only 1 second!

The thing is that 300 000 000m is a just one of those small amounts in space. Other stars are billions of kilometres-let alone metres-away. Astronomers in fact use light year as the unit for distance. One light year is the distance travelled by light (in vacuum) during one year. Therefore one light year equals (300 000 000*3600*24*365)m.

A single light year is definitely huge: 9.46 trillion kilometres-no need to put this in digit form-in fact. But where exactly do I want to converge? A star that you see in the night sky is not one but many light years away. This means that it is very far away. But most importantly, it means that light from this particular star takes many years-and not


mere seconds-to reach your eyes! So what?

When you watch a star, you are actually only seeing the light it emitted years ago. At present, the star may be somewhere else in the night sky. (Stars do move in space). It might have deflected a little to the east or north or north-northeast. The star is still emitting light though. This light will however be seen in the following decades or even centuries; or simply next year.

When you watch stars at night, you are actually looking in the past. So who or what is time travelling? The star? You? Or light? The further something is from you, the further in the past you are penetrating into.

Maybe then, someday, the newest technologies will be able to observe these seconds after the Big Bang-if it ever occurred in the first place.

About the Author

Khalil A.Cassimally is the editor in chief of Astronomy Journal and Astronomy Journal Ezine. He is also the co-founder of the RCPL Astronomy Club.
He is currently Senior Columnist at BackWash.com and Columnist for bbc.co.uk h2g2 The Post where he writes 'Not Scientific Science' column.

 

Science/AAAS | Scientific research, news and career information
International weekly science journal, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
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Science.gov is a gateway to government science information provided by US Government science agencies, including research and development results.
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AAAS web magazine. Some free sample stories, subscription required for full text.
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Searchable database of jobs, sorted by field specialty. Can post resume and curriculum vitae. Includes tips for improving the workplace for employers and ...
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London museum and library of science. Exhibitions cover all areas of science and technology. Includes online exhibits and a learning area.
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