Did you hear the one about the astronaut who got younger on his space flight? While this sounds like a joke, it also happens to be true! Time slows down when traveling at great speed in space, so space travelers age more slowly than they do on Earth.
Albert Einstein figured this out n 1905, long before we started flying in space. Einstein knew the speed of light never changes: it s constant. This means light always travels at 186,000 miles (299,329 km) per second. Time, however, is relative, said Einstein. It can change. It changes according to the speed of what is measuring The faster the speed, the slower time passes. In fact, a very accurate clock aboard a space shuttle was measured after its return to it lost 0.000,000,000,295 seconds on each second of the trip. Now, this is a very tiny amount lose, it proved Einstein's theory. If the shuttle had been traveling near he of had been gone for several years, the time loss would have been bigger. So, if you went on a very long space trip and spacecraft could travel close to 186,000 miles per second, you'd younger than your current same-age friends when you returned to Earth! Isn't that something?
© Discovery Channel
© Discovery Channel
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