TIME IS IT AN ILLUSION?
All About Space UK|Issue 141
TIME IS ONE OF THE MOST PUZZLING PHENOMENA IN THE UNIVERSE. HERE WE TAKE A LOOK AT THE LATEST IDEAS ABOUT ITS NATURE AND ORIGINS
Giles Sparrow
TIME IS IT AN ILLUSION?

Time’s endless flow shapes the way we understand the world. Being carried along on a river of time that only flows in one direction is essential to our understanding of the universe. But what exactly is time, and where does it come from? Recent research is suggesting some surprising new ideas. For more than a century, scientists have treated time as a dimension – a ‘direction of travel’ both similar to and radically different from the three space dimensions. Thanks to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, it’s also clear that space and time are wrapped up together in a complex ‘continuum’ called space-time. In extreme situations, distance in space and the flow of time can be stretched, compressed or even exchanged.

Professor Sean Carroll, author of From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time, argues that time isn’t really that hard to understand. “I don’t think it’s a mystery, and I don’t think it’s been a mystery for a very long time,” he explains. “It was a bit simpler back when we had Isaac Newton and time and space were both absolute. Then we would have considered the universe to be made of space and everything in it, and the universe keeps happening over and over again – time is just the label we put on those different versions that happen one after another with things in different positions, a bit like the pages of a book.

Esta historia es de la edición Issue 141 de All About Space UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición Issue 141 de All About Space UK.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE ALL ABOUT SPACE UKVer todo
MYSTERIES OF THE UNI WHERE ARE ALL THE SPIRAL GALAXIES?
All About Space UK

MYSTERIES OF THE UNI WHERE ARE ALL THE SPIRAL GALAXIES?

There are far fewer spiral galaxies than elliptical ones in the Supergalactic Plane, and scientists are keen to discover why

time-read
7 minutos  |
Issue 161
ZOMBIE STARS
All About Space UK

ZOMBIE STARS

+10 OTHER TERRIFYING SPACE OBJECTS

time-read
8 minutos  |
Issue 161
HOW TO BEAT LIGHT POLLUTION
All About Space UK

HOW TO BEAT LIGHT POLLUTION

Thought it was impossible to observe the wonders of the night sky from towns and cities? Think again. Follow our tips and tricks on successfully observing through sky glow

time-read
2 minutos  |
Issue 161
15 STUNNING STAR CLUSTERS
All About Space UK

15 STUNNING STAR CLUSTERS

These beautiful stellar groupings are spattered across the cosmos

time-read
8 minutos  |
Issue 161
Eileen Collins "It was a difficult mission...we were the first to see Mir"
All About Space UK

Eileen Collins "It was a difficult mission...we were the first to see Mir"

Having served as both the first female pilot and first female commander of NASA's Space Shuttle, Collins boosted the involvement of women in space exploration to a whole new level

time-read
9 minutos  |
Issue 161
MARS LEAKS FASTER WHEN IT'S CLOSER TO THE SUN
All About Space UK

MARS LEAKS FASTER WHEN IT'S CLOSER TO THE SUN

The Red Planet has lost enough water to space to form a global ocean hundreds of kilometres deep

time-read
2 minutos  |
Issue 161
FUTURE TECH KANKOH-MARU
All About Space UK

FUTURE TECH KANKOH-MARU

This ambitious reusable spacecraft will be capable of taking 50 people to and from orbit

time-read
2 minutos  |
Issue 161
THE FINAL FRONTIER
All About Space UK

THE FINAL FRONTIER

Beyond the reach of the Sun is a fascinating region of the cosmos that were only just beginning to explore

time-read
8 minutos  |
Issue 161
A long-lost moon could explain Mars' weird shape and extreme terrain
All About Space UK

A long-lost moon could explain Mars' weird shape and extreme terrain

A long-lost moon could explain why Mars is so different from the other rocky planets in the Solar System. Today Mars has two tiny moons.

time-read
2 minutos  |
Issue 161
A sprinkling of cosmic dust may have helped kick-start life on Earth
All About Space UK

A sprinkling of cosmic dust may have helped kick-start life on Earth

Cosmic dust may have helped kick-start life on Earth. New findings challenge a widely held assumption that this wasn't a plausible explanation.

time-read
3 minutos  |
Issue 161