Astrophysicist Ronald Mallett has dedicated much of his adult life to the notion that time travel is possible, and so far, he’s come up with the scientific equations and principles upon which he says a real-life time machine could be created.
The equation is based on Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity which stated the speed of light, which is a staggering 299,792,458 metres per second, is constant throughout the Universe. This speed remains the same even if the observer is moving relative to it.
Theoretically, this ultimately also means our perception of time can be changed through a phenomenon known as “time dilation”.
Time dilation is the difference in time when measured on two clocks.
Imagine one of these clocks was placed on a spaceship which travels at the speed of light, or close to it, and another remained on Earth.
When the spaceship reaches light speed, time is separately relative to both the clock on Earth and in the space ship.
As the speed of light is constant for both parties, it would seem as if time would be moving much slower on the rocket, meaning that when the rocket returns to Earth, thousands of years could have passed.
While this theory is generally accepted by physicists for time travelling into the future, going back in time would not be achievable under this theory.
However, astrophysicist Ron Mallett told CNN that by using lasers, experts could ‘bend’ space-time, allowing time travel into the past.
Dr Mallett said: “To put it in a nutshell, Einstein said that time can be affected by speed.
“It turned out my understanding about lasers eventually helped me in my breakthrough with understanding how I might be able to find a whole new way for the basis of a time machine.
“By studying the type of gravitational field that was produced by a ring laser, this could lead to a new way of looking at the possibility of a time machine based on a circulating beam of light.
“Eventually a circulating beam of laser lights could act as a sort of a time machine and cause a twisting of time that would allow you to go back into the past.”
