Star Trek Voyager and Planet X and Mu-Mesons and the Global Positioning System

Fiction: Star Trek Voyager Finds Earth-like Planet X:
Star Trek Voyager discovers a planet very much like our Earth - the astronauts check it out before landing: gaseous atmosphere, water, mountains, no visible life forms but vegetation - however it is massive, with an extremely high gravitational pull, and enormous orbital and rotational speeds. They report their findings to Communication HQ and their plans for a brief exploratory walk-around, staying close to the ship - they would report again in twelve hours. Then, gingerly, they retro-rocket their craft down to the ground, landing on a large flat plain.

An exploratory team dons oxygen equipment, protective clothing, boots, and carefully descends the ladder to ground level. The powerful gravity force makes locomotion, even arm movements difficult, but they collect samples of the atmosphere, soil and rocks, even water from a nearby stream. Physically tired on returning to the ship, they shower, change clothing, have some refreshments, check the time and take an hour's rest.

At the appointed hour, the crew gathers in the main cabin. Half have voyaged before and know what to expect; first-timers have all been briefed and eagerly await the contact from home. A tone sounds, and on the screen, letters and numbers sequence quickly, as from a keyboard - hour and date.

While they had been under the influence of the giant planet for the twelve hours since the prior communication - on Earth - and for everyone and everything on it - the elapsed time has been two years.

Time Dilation - the Brilliance of Einstein:
Probably the most "accepted" of all human intuitions is that the "passage of time" is a constant - everywhere. All space science fiction, e.g. Star Trek, is based upon such constancy, the complexity of relationships, otherwise, being impossible. However, in the world of true reality - of our universe and the age of Earth - it is not so. In the real world, every space-time-reference-frame location in the universe is perceived and experienced as - unique in its passage of time - dependent upon the local force of gravity and velocity. Time passage on Earth is different than on the moon, than on any other planet, or solar system, or galaxy, or location in the universe. Our watches would keep a different time, our hearts would beat differently. That was the brilliant deduction of Albert Einstein, from a "thought experiment", laid out in his 1905 and 1915 Field Equations.

From the scientific fact that the speed of light is a universal constant - the identicle specific value when light passes an observer, whether the light source speeds toward or away - Einstein theorized (subsequently proven) that, although the beam of light (its speed a constant), traverses a longer distance (mirror reflection and triangulated path) in the same instant-event,it would be the "amount of time experienced" that had to be different; that "time" is what would vary as a function of the gravity field and velocity for individual locations. Since then, scientists have proven his theory and measured those differences.

Einstein's "thought experiment" was brilliant, revolutionary (even magical), yet simple: Time (seconds) = Distance (miles) divided by Speed (miles per second); thus a flash of light viewed by two observers: one moving, one stationary; the distance traveled by the angle-reflected light beam being longer to the stationary observer - as the speed of light is a constant, the "perception" of the observed passage of time for the moving observer (witnessing the single event) had to be less. The difference in "perceived time" is called relativistic time dilation, and the concept was thoroughly proved by the Haefele-Keating experiment in 1972, atomic clocks on Boeing 707 and Concorde SST aircraft, being flown at different speeds, altitudes and directions.

World-class Cosmologists Views:
World-class Cosmologists G. L. Schroeder ("Genesis and the Big Bang", "The Science of God") and N. Aviezer ("In the Beginning") - explain relativity in terms of the Big Bang's aftermath - the experience of "time passage" differs to observers at different locations - due to differing gravity and velocity parameters: "million-million factor - average difference between the perceptions of Earth time and Cosmic time .. stretching of light waves .. [due to] universe's expansion .. slowed the 'perceived time' - on what would become Earth - by a million-million."

Schroeder further explains: "we can experience differences in time passage only when comparing events across a boundary of (space-time) reference-frames .. and even then, only when the gravity and speeds are vastly different"; also, "Within a reference frame, all will seem perfectly normal (or Newtonian), regardless of gravity and speed."

Solid-Science Example - Mu-mesons:
The mu-meson provides a clear example of dramatic time dilation - how 200 micro-seconds to one observer are the same as 4.5 micro-seconds to another. Mu-mesons are not only found in high-energy physics labs, but also result when cosmic rays from outer space slam into nuclei of atmospheric gases 60 kilometers above Earth. The energy released is so great that speeds almost that of light result. An established factor of mu-mesons is the 50% decay rate in 1.5 micro-seconds. To an observer on Earth, the 60 kilometers altitude-distance, with the mu-mesons traveling at near light-speed, should take about 200 micro-seconds. At 1.5 micro-second half-life periods, there should, therefore, be 133 such "halvings" during the 60 kilometer descent, and at the established decay rate, the number of mu-mesons surviving the trip to ground (.5 to the 133th power) should be less than one out of billions of billions. Yet, fully one-eighth of the mu-mesons do reach ground level. By logic, therefore, the elapsed time for the mu-mesons to reach Earth had to be only 4.5 microseconds (three periods of half-decay).

Despite explanations and examples, the concept of two vastly differing time-passages - of the same event - by two observers (in differing gravity and speed domains across a space-time-reference) remains difficult to grasp. More examples of time-dilation, however, may help:

Time-Dilation in our Daily Lives - GPS - Global Positioning System:
Developed by the Department Of Defense, then extended to civilian navigation, then to automobiles and hand-held devices, the GPS has been fully operational since 1993. With 24 satellites circling Earth at 12,000 miles altitude and 8,400 miles per hour (not geo-synchronous or geo-stationary orbits), four satellites, as a minimum, are always visible to (and can see) any spot on Earth. The atomic clocks aboard, as on Earth, are accurate to a billionth of a second. As a "slight" but significant aspect of Einstein's time-dilation laws, the differences in parameters of gravity (one-sixth of Earth's) and velocity (also different than on Earth's surface), necessitate periodic synchronization with Earth-based atomic clocks. The difference is 38 micro-seconds per day: Einstein's General Relativity = +45; Special Relativity = -7; Total adjustment = 38 millionths of a second per day.

Unusual Aspects of Time Dilation:


In the expanding Universe, "space" is expanding, not "matter" - galaxies and solar systems retain their size - the distances between galaxies increase;
A moving atomic clock ticks more slowly than a stationary one;
At speeds of 1/10 that of light, time dilation is less than 1 percent (however, as the speed of light (c) is neared - the dilation effect increases dramatically):
If traveling at 0.99c, a 24 hour day = seven Earth-days;
If traveling @ 0.9997c, 24 hours = 40 Earth-days;
If @ 0.999 999 999 95c, one day = 550 Earth-years;
If @ 0.999 999 999 999 999 999 999 995c = 457 Million Earth-years.

The shocker, of course, is at the beginning of our Universe - when what would become Earth was a tiny speck of matter - adding Big Bang's gravity, an unimaginable force - while also traveling at an incredible speed - in an expanding Universe. The smartest cosmologists calculated it: 13.7 Billion Earth-years, the scientifically established age of our Universe - but to a Cosmos observer, it was only six days of Cosmic Time (24 hour days) - on what would become Earth.

Six Days Cosmic Time and 13.7 Billion Years:

Cosmologists like Gerald L. Schroeder do not engage in philosophical explanations to reconcile science and theology - of a "day" being an allegorical epoch - stating clearly that "the same single sequence of events that encompasses the time period from the beginning of the universe to the appearance of mankind - did take six days - and also 15 billion years - simultaneously - starting at the same instant and finishing at the same instant." (Note: Since the writing of his book in 1992, the age of the Universe has now been more precisely established from his "about 15" to 13.7 billion years.) Thus, by Einstein's time-dilation equations, there were truly only six 24 hour days from the Big Bang's creation of our Universe to the appearance of Mankind; and yet, Cosmic Day 5 (24 hours) also, truly included the hundreds of millions of years of the dinosaurs (if an observer were on Earth).

Reference point for a Cosmic-Clock-Calendar:
The two times above are both "real" (vouchsafed and interpreted by world-class scientists) - 13.7 billion years from the Big Bang's creation of our Universe to human-kind, and six (24 hour) days of Cosmic time - each being correct in its own time-reference plane. For the Cosmic-Clock-Calendar" there is but one realistic reference consideration, unchanging since the Big Bang and the creation of the Universe - the "cosmic background radiation" (CBR). Says Schroeder, "The radiation remnant of the Big Bang fills the entire universe, unrelated to any particular source," Discovered by Penzias and Wilson in 1965, it is the only source of radiation that has been present and ubiquitous since creation. "CBR frequency forms the basis of cosmic proper time, the biblical clock of Genesis." In his "Genesis and the Big Bang", Schroeder comments on the six days or about 14 billion years to the differing observers in differing reference planes: "Which understanding is correct? Both are - literally - with no allegorical modifications of these two, simultaneous, yet different time periods. "It is unequivocal, six 24 hour-days elapsed between .. the start of the Big Bang and the appearance of mankind - and simultaneously, it took [also and almost] 14 billion - 365 day-years, to get from .. the Big bang .. to mankind."

Note 1: A comparison between Cosmic time (per Astronomy and Earth science) to Genesis (Bible), shows remarkable sequence and day-by-day correlation: formation of galaxies, solar system, Earth, water, vegetation, aquatic and flying creatures, mammals and man - different words - not a single disparity.

Note 2: A time-dilation triviality - a cross-country flight will result in the passengers and crew "aging" less than groundlings - by about one forty-billionth of a second.

Aaron Kolom qualifies as a "rocket scientist" with over 50 years aerospace engineering: Stress Analyst to Chief of Structural Sciences on numerous military aircraft, to Corp. Director Structures and Materials, Asst. Chief Engineer Space Shuttle Program through first three flights (awarded NASA Public Service Medal), Rockwell International Corp.; Program Manager Concorde SST, VP Engineering TRE Corp.; Aerospace Consultant