Does space travel make people age more slowly? (2024)

FAQs

Does space travel make people age more slowly? ›

astronauts actually age more slowly in orbit than on Earth (because of the Station's speed and time dilation due to special relativity) BUT the effect is very small - after spending six months on the ISS, astronauts have aged about 0.005 seconds less…

For astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), the effects of time dilation are a part of daily life, albeit on a very small scale. After spending months in orbit, they age less than those on Earth by 0.005 seconds according to the European Space Agency.

This may seem like a far stretch from reality, but spaceflight causes significant physiological changes including an accelerated loss of muscle and bone density, and immune system dysfunction that parallel the effects of natural aging here on Earth.

The faster you travel, the slower time will pass for you. The effect is small – take a transatlantic flight from London to New York and your watch will be a ten-millionth of a second behind one left on the ground – but nonetheless you'll have aged a fraction more slowly than if you'd stayed at home.

Generally, no. Different regions of space experience different degrees of time dilation, but the differences between most regions are negligible. It is only when objects are very close to very massive objects (e.g., black holes) that time can (theoretically) be dilated to this extent (e.g., the movie Interstellar).

Astronauts on the ISS experience both weaker gravity and higher velocity, resulting in slightly slower ageing compared to people on Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) explained in a tweet that “after spending six months on the ISS, astronauts have aged about 0.005 seconds less than the rest of us.”

So depending on our position and speed, time can appear to move faster or slower to us relative to others in a different part of space-time. And for astronauts on the International Space Station, that means they get to age just a tiny bit slower than people on Earth. That's because of time-dilation effects.

You had the human made years in mind which belongs to Earth so that itself is your answer, 10 years in space is 10 years on earth as the quantity and measurement is done with same scale.

Pluto takes about 250 earth-years to make a complete solar orbit. If you went there and used that to measure a year, you'd never make it to your next birthday. But you'll still age at the same rate as you would on earth, and the road of your life is the same length whether you measure it in earth-years or pluto-years.

As for what determines a person's rate of biological aging, Milman said genes play a role. There are certain "longevity genes" that can help shield people from environmental stressors, to a degree. But aging is not set in stone.

What age do we age the fastest? ›

The results offer important new insights into what happens as we age. For example, the team suggests that the biological aging process isn't steady and appears to accelerate periodically — with the greatest bursts coming, on average, around ages 34, 60, and 78.

CHEST & NECK. The skin on your neck tends to be one of the first body parts to show signs of aging, because it is thinner and more delicate than the skin on the rest of your body. Similar to the face, your neck and chest can also develop fine lines and wrinkles.

1 year in space is equivalent to approximately 1 year on Earth. This is because the concept of time remains the same regardless of whether you are in space or on Earth. However, it's important to note that time can be affected by different factors in space, such as gravitational fields and relative velocity.

It is defined as the distance that light travels in free space in one second, and is equal to exactly 299792458 m (approximately 983571055 ft or 186282 mi).

An hour in space would be the same length as an hour on Earth, as long as the space person were traveling at the same speed as Earth. Time slows down as you approach the speed of light, according to Einsteinian physics, but no human has the capacity to go that fast.

Earth's gravity is so weak that the slowing of time is not noticeable, but the effect has been confirmed using sensitive instruments. For example, at sea level you age one-billionth of a second less every year than you would if you lived on top of Mt. Everest.) Near a black hole, the slowing of time is extreme.

1 hour in space is 1 hour on earth, unless we're talking very extreme masses and/or velocities.

There aren't really 'days' in space unless you are on another planet. However, a good analog on the International Space Station would be the time it takes to make one complete orbit. An ISS day is 90 minutes, which means astronauts get to see about 16 “sunsets” per 24 hour period.