Astronaut Spends 340 Days in Space and Returns to Earth Younger
Special Relativity.
NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after an impressive 340 days in space and was reported to be two inches taller, and more incredibly, 8.6 milliseconds younger than he would have been having remained on planet Earth. While the former was due to zero gravity and its lack of exertion of force on the body’s spine — which has the potential of stretching out an additional three inches within that environment — the decrease in age, although already established as a discovery in science, is fascinating nonetheless. The phenomena is called “time dilation,” which simply put is when time runs quicker for a slower moving object when two objects are moving at different speeds. Kelly was moving faster while on the spacecraft ISS for the many, many days he was up in space, therefore time ran slower for him. Unfortunately Kelly will return to his original height now that he’s back due to gravity, but will still remain 8.6 milliseconds more youthful.
