The Conversation contributed the article to Space.com's expert voices.
Sam Baron is an associate professor at the Australian catholic University.
In the new Disney Pixar film, " Lightyear," Buzz Lightyear is stranded on a dangerous planet with his commanding officer and crew.
They only have a chance to test a special fuel. Buzz has to fly into space and jump to high speeds. His attempts come with a terrible cost.
When Buzz takes a four-minute test flight into space, he lands on the planet to see how long he's been there. Buzz cares the most about fall in love with his family. His main enemy is time.
What is happening? Is this a science fiction or a real story?
The Z-1 spacesuit concept was created by NASA.
Buzz is experiencing a phenomena called time dilation. Albert Einstein's theory of relativity is a famous scientific theory.
We had the best theory of motion before Einstein.
The predictions of the motion of the planets in our solar system were provided byNewton.
Time is like a giant clock that ticks away the seconds for everyone. The master clock will show the same time regardless of where you are.
It is possible for humans to travel back in time.
The master clock was shattered by Einstein's theory of relativity. Everyone has a clock with them in Einstein's picture.
The clock won't tick at the same rate because of this. Many clock will tick at different rates.
The quicker you travel, the slower your clock will tick.
If you travel very fast in a spaceship, a few minutes may pass for you, but years may pass for someone you left behind.
Time travel can be thought of as a type of time travel. Someone else's future is provided by it.
Buzz jumps into the future to see what his friends are up to.
There is no way to travel backwards in time, as one important character talks about in the film.
You can't use time dilation to travel into your own future.
You can't travel into the future and meet your older self by going fast.
It seems like science fiction, but it is actually a measurable phenomenon. Scientists have conducted a number of experiments to show that the clock can tick at different rates.
The astronauts on the International Space Station travel at very high speeds compared to their friends and family. If you know when to look up, you can see the space station.
The astronauts are getting older at a slower rate. During his trip to the moon in the 1960s, Buzz in Lightyear would have experienced a small amount of time dilation.
The astronauts on the International Space Station won't feel or notice anything. The time jumps seen in Lightyear are not comparable.
The astronauts up in space will also be able to return to their families.
It's clear that time dilation could have a significant cost. There are some good news. One day we might be able to travel to the stars in time.
There is a huge place in the universe. The closest star is 40,208,000,000 km away. Traveling around the world is like that. No one would survive long enough to travel at an average speed.
Length contraction is also associated with time dilation. The distance between your spaceship and the object will appear to contract when you travel very fast.
Everything is very close together. It's possible for someone to get to the nearest star in a matter of days.
It would still be possible to change time. The clock on Earth would be slower than yours. If you went to the nearest star in a few days, everyone would be gone by the time you got back.
There is a promise and a tragedy in that.
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