Reaching the Andromeda Galaxy in Just a Minute!

Reaching the Andromeda Galaxy in Just a Minute!

Brian Cox discusses the concept of time and distance contraction at speeds close to the speed of light. He explains that for objects moving near light speed, distances shrink significantly from their perspective. Using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as an example, he notes that protons in the LHC, traveling at 99.999999% of the speed of light, experience the 27-kilometer circumference ring as only four meters wide due to this effect. Extrapolating this, he theorizes that if a spacecraft could travel close to light speed, it could reduce the 2-million-light-year journey to the Andromeda Galaxy to mere minutes in the spacecraft's timeframe. However, he highlights the downside: upon returning, millions of years would have passed on Earth due to time dilation.

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