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Gravity Probe B

Testing Einstein's Universe

Special & General Relativity Questions and Answers

If you travel near the speed of light, do you enter another dimension?

No. There is no evidence that this happens. All you have to do is look at what happens to electrons and protons that are accelerated to 99.999 percent the speed of light in modern high-energy particle accelerators. They still 'stay in the machine' and do not start to fade-out in some weird way as they try to enter some other dimension!! The rate at which time passes for them gets very strange, however. At a speed of 99.999999999999999999 percent the speed of light, you could cross the entire Milky Way galaxy in less than a minute or so. See a previous question about travel near the speed of light for more details.


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All answers are provided by Dr. Sten Odenwald (Raytheon STX) for the NASA Astronomy Cafe, part of the NASA Education and Public Outreach program.