NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, possible hint of life

Re:NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, ... by rowanG077 on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @05:35AM (#37478646)

Not that's not what he is implying. He is talking about time dilation.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, ... by melvinmelih on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @06:16AM (#37478942)

How does one travel 1000 light years in a span of human lifetime (~80 yrs) if you’re not going faster than the speed of light?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, ... by kawzeg on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @06:35AM (#37479037)

Time dilation! Time is relative. For an outside observer, over 1000 years pass, but aboard the ship, much less time passes. There are calculators for this, e.g. at [0]. If you constantly accelerate at 1g, flip around at the halfway point and accelerate in the opposite direction for the rest of the journey, roughly 13 years would pass from the traveler's perspective.

This site also has a "Newton's universe" mode, which pretends that relativity doesn't exist. Interestingly, in that case you would take over 44 years!

[0]: https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/space-travel?c=EUR&v=...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, ... by konschubert on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @09:15AM (#37480677)

I am pretty rusty in special relativity, but IIRC, in the ship it basically seems like the distance is contacting as you accelerate. And from earth, it seems like time is going slower inside the moving spaceship.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, ... by Anarch157a on Tuesday September 12, 2023 @06:50AM (#37479155)

With relativistic time dilation. 1000 years will pass on Earth, but on tge ship, it will be only a couple of decades, assuming they're close enough to the speed of light.

[ Parent | on HN ]