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

Fiction: Star Trek Voyager Finds Earth-like Planet X:surviving the trip to ground (.5 to the 133th power)
Star Trek Voyager discovers a planet very much likeshould be less than one out of billions of billions. Yet,
our Earth - the astronauts check it out before landing:fully one-eighth of the mu-mesons do reach ground
gaseous atmosphere, water, mountains, no visible lifelevel. By logic, therefore, the elapsed time for the
forms but vegetation - however it is massive, withmu-mesons to reach Earth had to be only 4.5
an extremely high gravitational pull, and enormousmicroseconds (three periods of half-decay).
orbital and rotational speeds. They report theirDespite explanations and examples, the concept of
findings to Communication HQ and their plans for atwo vastly differing time-passages - of the same
brief exploratory walk-around, staying close to theevent - by two observers (in differing gravity and
ship - they would report again in twelve hours. Then,speed domains across a space-time-reference)
gingerly, they retro-rocket their craft down to theremains difficult to grasp. More examples of
ground, landing on a large flat plain.time-dilation, however, may help:
An exploratory team dons oxygen equipment,Time-Dilation in our Daily Lives - GPS - Global
protective clothing, boots, and carefully descends thePositioning System:
ladder to ground level. The powerful gravity forceDeveloped by the Department Of Defense, then
makes locomotion, even arm movements difficult,extended to civilian navigation, then to automobiles
but they collect samples of the atmosphere, soil andand hand-held devices, the GPS has been fully
rocks, even water from a nearby stream. Physicallyoperational since 1993. With 24 satellites circling Earth
tired on returning to the ship, they shower, changeat 12,000 miles altitude and 8,400 miles per hour (not
clothing, have some refreshments, check the timegeo-synchronous or geo-stationary orbits), four
and take an hour's rest.satellites, as a minimum, are always visible to (and
At the appointed hour, the crew gathers in the maincan see) any spot on Earth. The atomic clocks
cabin. Half have voyaged before and know what toaboard, as on Earth, are accurate to a billionth of a
expect; first-timers have all been briefed and eagerlysecond. As a "slight" but significant aspect of
await the contact from home. A tone sounds, and onEinstein's time-dilation laws, the differences in
the screen, letters and numbers sequence quickly, asparameters of gravity (one-sixth of Earth's) and
from a keyboard - hour and date.velocity (also different than on Earth's surface),
While they had been under the influence of the giantnecessitate periodic synchronization with Earth-based
planet for the twelve hours since the prioratomic clocks. The difference is 38 micro-seconds per
communication - on Earth - and for everyone andday: Einstein's General Relativity = +45; Special
everything on it - the elapsed time has been twoRelativity = -7; Total adjustment = 38 millionths of a
years.second per day.
Time Dilation - the Brilliance of Einstein:Unusual Aspects of Time Dilation:
Probably the most "accepted" of all human intuitions- In the expanding Universe, "space" is expanding, not
is that the "passage of time" is a constant -"matter" - galaxies and solar systems retain their size
everywhere. All space science fiction, e.g. Star Trek,- the distances between galaxies increase;
is based upon such constancy, the complexity of- A moving atomic clock ticks more slowly than a
relationships, otherwise, being impossible. However, instationary one;
the world of true reality - of our universe and the- At speeds of 1/10 that of light, time dilation is less
age of Earth - it is not so. In the real world, everythan 1 percent (however, as the speed of light (c) is
space-time-reference-frame location in the universe isneared - the dilation effect increases dramatically):
perceived and experienced as - unique in its passage- If traveling at 0.99c, a 24 hour day = seven
of time - dependent upon the local force of gravityEarth-days;
and velocity. Time passage on Earth is different than- If traveling @ 0.9997c, 24 hours = 40 Earth-days;
on the moon, than on any other planet, or solar- If @ 0.999 999 999 95c, one day = 550
system, or galaxy, or location in the universe. OurEarth-years;
watches would keep a different time, our hearts- If @ 0.999 999 999 999 999 999 999 995c = 457
would beat differently. That was the brilliantMillion Earth-years.
deduction of Albert Einstein, from a "thoughtThe shocker, of course, is at the beginning of our
experiment", laid out in his 1905 and 1915 FieldUniverse - when what would become Earth was a
Equations.tiny speck of matter - adding Big Bang's gravity, an
From the scientific fact that the speed of light is aunimaginable force - while also traveling at an
universal constant - the identicle specific value whenincredible speed - in an expanding Universe. The
light passes an observer, whether the light sourcesmartest cosmologists calculated it: 13.7 Billion
speeds toward or away - Einstein theorizedEarth-years, the scientifically established age of our
(subsequently proven) that, although the beam ofUniverse - but to a Cosmos observer, it was only six
light (its speed a constant), traverses a longerdays of Cosmic Time (24 hour days) - on what
distance (mirror reflection and triangulated path) inwould become Earth.
the same instant-event,it would be the "amount ofSix Days Cosmic Time and 13.7 Billion Years:
time experienced" that had to be different; thatCosmologists like Gerald L. Schroeder do not engage
"time" is what would vary as a function of thein philosophical explanations to reconcile science and
gravity field and velocity for individual locations. Sincetheology - of a "day" being an allegorical epoch -
then, scientists have proven his theory and measuredstating clearly that "the same single sequence of
those differences.events that encompasses the time period from the
Einstein's "thought experiment" was brilliant,beginning of the universe to the appearance of
revolutionary (even magical), yet simple: Timemankind - did take six days - and also 15 billion years
(seconds) = Distance (miles) divided by Speed (miles- simultaneously - starting at the same instant and
per second); thus a flash of light viewed by twofinishing at the same instant." (Note: Since the writing
observers: one moving, one stationary; the distanceof his book in 1992, the age of the Universe has now
traveled by the angle-reflected light beam beingbeen more precisely established from his "about 15"
longer to the stationary observer - as the speed ofto 13.7 billion years.) Thus, by Einstein's time-dilation
light is a constant, the "perception" of the observedequations, there were truly only six 24 hour days
passage of time for the moving observer (witnessingfrom the Big Bang's creation of our Universe to the
the single event) had to be less. The difference inappearance of Mankind; and yet, Cosmic Day 5 (24
"perceived time" is called relativistic time dilation, andhours) also, truly included the hundreds of millions of
the concept was thoroughly proved by theyears of the dinosaurs (if an observer were on
Haefele-Keating experiment in 1972, atomic clocks onEarth).
Boeing 707 and Concorde SST aircraft, being flownReference point for a Cosmic-Clock-Calendar:
at different speeds, altitudes and directions.The two times above are both "real" (vouchsafed
World-class Cosmologists Views:and interpreted by world-class scientists) - 13.7 billion
World-class Cosmologists G. L. Schroeder ("Genesisyears from the Big Bang's creation of our Universe to
and the Big Bang", "The Science of God") and N.human-kind, and six (24 hour) days of Cosmic time -
Aviezer ("In the Beginning") - explain relativity ineach being correct in its own time-reference plane.
terms of the Big Bang's aftermath - the experienceFor the Cosmic-Clock-Calendar" there is but one
of "time passage" differs to observers at differentrealistic reference consideration, unchanging since the
locations - due to differing gravity and velocityBig Bang and the creation of the Universe - the
parameters: "million-million factor - average difference"cosmic background radiation" (CBR). Says Schroeder,
between the perceptions of Earth time and Cosmic"The radiation remnant of the Big Bang fills the entire
time .. stretching of light waves .. [due to] universe'suniverse, unrelated to any particular source,"
expansion .. slowed the 'perceived time' - on whatDiscovered by Penzias and Wilson in 1965, it is the
would become Earth - by a million-million."only source of radiation that has been present and
Schroeder further explains: "we can experienceubiquitous since creation. "CBR frequency forms the
differences in time passage only when comparingbasis of cosmic proper time, the biblical clock of
events across a boundary of (space-time)Genesis." In his "Genesis and the Big Bang", Schroeder
reference-frames .. and even then, only when thecomments on the six days or about 14 billion years
gravity and speeds are vastly different"; also, "Withinto the differing observers in differing reference
a reference frame, all will seem perfectly normal (orplanes: "Which understanding is correct? Both are -
Newtonian), regardless of gravity and speed."literally - with no allegorical modifications of these
Solid-Science Example - Mu-mesons:two, simultaneous, yet different time periods. "It is
The mu-meson provides a clear example of dramaticunequivocal, six 24 hour-days elapsed between .. the
time dilation - how 200 micro-seconds to onestart of the Big Bang and the appearance of mankind
observer are the same as 4.5 micro-seconds to- and simultaneously, it took [also and almost] 14
another. Mu-mesons are not only found in high-energybillion - 365 day-years, to get from .. the Big bang .. to
physics labs, but also result when cosmic rays frommankind."
outer space slam into nuclei of atmospheric gases 60Note 1: A comparison between Cosmic time (per
kilometers above Earth. The energy released is soAstronomy and Earth science) to Genesis (Bible),
great that speeds almost that of light result. Anshows remarkable sequence and day-by-day
established factor of mu-mesons is the 50% decaycorrelation: formation of galaxies, solar system, Earth,
rate in 1.5 micro-seconds. To an observer on Earth,water, vegetation, aquatic and flying creatures,
the 60 kilometers altitude-distance, with themammals and man - different words - not a single
mu-mesons traveling at near light-speed, should takedisparity.
about 200 micro-seconds. At 1.5 micro-second half-lifeNote 2: A time-dilation triviality - a cross-country flight
periods, there should, therefore, be 133 suchwill result in the passengers and crew "aging" less
"halvings" during the 60 kilometer descent, and at thethan groundlings - by about one forty-billionth of a
established decay rate, the number of mu-mesonssecond.