Neil deGrasse Tyson Discusses Time Dilation in the Movie, 'Contact'

Did the movie "Contact" get time dilation right? To answer a fan's Cosmic Query, Neil deGrasse Tyson gives his interpretation of what happens in the movie when Jodie Foster's character experiences an 18-hour journey across the Universe during which only seconds pass on Earth. Neil and co-host Eugene Mirman discuss relativity, time travel, time warps, wormholes and the potential capabilities of advanced aliens.

Catch up with StarTalk Radio around the web:

[Hal]

I think what actually happened was that she traveled back in time when she returned to Earth so to us it seemed instantaneous, but in reality, it was the future ship and passenger coming out on the other end. If wormhole technology was being implemented then traveling back in time is an inevitable consequence if you reach a destination faster than C.

[StarTalk]

New Video: Watch Neil deGrasse Tyson discuss time dilation and time travel in the movie “Contact” in this StarTalk Radio Cosmic Query with comic co-host Eugene Mirman: Neil deGrasse Tyson Discusses Time Dilation in the Movie, "Contact"

[uzimachi]

I've always thought about it this way...

The space and time she entered as the ball descended was separate from the space and time outside the sphere. Technically she didn't go to another world, she went to this pocket universe where she saw a lot of familiar things, like a beach, an alien that took the shape of her father, etc.

The alien was inside a machine the same way, both linked in this pocket universe, waiting for a person to come through and have a chat with it.

[fantasticjack]

Wouldn't time-dilation occur only if she was traveling at close to the speed of light?

She was entering an artificial wormhole which instantly transported her across space-time, and then when she returned, she emerged through the wormhole again at the same point of entry, the same point in space-time.

I always thought it operated exactly like an einstein-rosen bridge is theorised to, and didn't involve any time dilation or near-light-speed travel at all

[imransuhail]

while the ship she was inside was falling it passed through a wormhole which took her to a distant region of space in a different time, when done from there she passed through another wormhole that took her back to the same space time position from where she left. so in essence she was teleported to another point in time and space and after 18 hours came back to the same time and space where she left so to the observer on earth it looks like nothing happened. How is this explanation? I think this explanation does not need to talk about time dilation right?

[Bwolber]

Love Contact, such a beautiful, inspiring film. I clearly chose the wrong major back in college.

[gasser]

i always figured in the movie, she went through time by means of the alien type craft they built. it opened a wormhole to another part of the universe at a different time, and she went there, did whatever, and when she came back it was only seconds on earth, but for her it was hours. i mean, if you go "faster than the speed of light, " you effectively time travel to the past. so wherever she went, took her X amount of time into the past and then back again, allowing her whatever "time" to record.

[jpl]

Woah, please ask NdGT: Doesn't relativity allow for closed-time-like-loops? That is, the wormhole exit could be at the same place as the entrance. Such that, you elapse time in traveling within the wormhole, but return when you began. In this way, Dr. Arroway could spend 18hrs in the elongated spacetime of the wormhole, interacting with whatever is in there, yet return instantaneously (relative to Earth observers)? Hawking has proposed chronological protection against this, but without an understanding of quantum gravity, it is an open question. This also allows for the type of time-travel seen in interstellar, also aided by the event-horizon (which may defeat the protection conjecture by hiding aspects of causal violation).

[Stephanus]

Adrian Veidt: How do you do it (teleportation)? Disassemble molecular components and reassemble them elsewhere?

Manhattan: No, that would be very inefficient. I stand still, while i warp space around me.

Adrian Veidt: So you find it easier to move the universe than just yourself.

[Armuotas]

I think it was the other way around: she didn't go anywhere but the aliens created a pocket of their part of the Universe inside the sphere. Remember how she "touched" the "air" and it wiggled? Maybe she was actualy touching the wall of the capsule (or whatever is the limit of that pocket). And since they controll the space-time of the pocket they can make it run at whatever speed they want.

[Shinsei]

I think that in a general sense the explanation Dr. T gives is correct however if my understanding of the current theory of wormhole travel could work the machine could return Jodie Foster's character back in time a micro second after it left so that to the naked eye it never left.

[darrellbz]

Well, given that a wormhole only connects to points of space-time I just assumed that the location she was sent to experienced time a lot faster than on earth. That would only require a difference in speed or gravitational differences between the two locations.

[Sebastian-hgxc]

last time i checked vega was 25 light years away. you can't reach vega in 18hours while traveling the speed of light, so time dilation doesn't seem to apply to whatever mode of transportation she used, at least not how we understand it.

[zeusblue]

There is a stargate episode where they open the stargate wormhole to another planet which is being consumed by a black hole. The time dilation effects in that episode are hilarious.

[attila.m.magyar]

Isn't there a theoretical possibility of time travel for example if one end of a wormhole moves at a high speed relative to the other? Jodie Foster's character actually goes through several wormholes in the movie ("I'm in another wormhole now... a series of them... it's like some... some kind of a transit system. A subway..."), so I think the possibility is there for an arrangement which exploits time travel as well. Also note that when Matthew McConaughey meets her before the selection interview where he asks her about religion, they actually talk about time dilation - this is why he doesn't want her to go, because he's afraid that while she's away for a few years in her time, decades or more would pass on Earth so they would never meet again. (Ironically, this is exactly what happens to Matthew McConaughey's character in Interstellar. :-D)

[SheSweetLikSugarNSavage]

Up late... and I get the urge to go looking for the oldest Startalk video that I can find again. One that I haven't watched before....

Can't seem to choose. 💔
So just select play all.❤😩

[deltauniformtangocharlieho]

Time and space in a wormhole do not necessarily make the traveler experience less time. A wormhole traverser can be brought from location X at time Y, to location X' at time Y' spend 18 hours there and then be brought back by a different wormhole to location X at time Y+ 1 microsecond..

[timmwape]

that was the assumption in the movie as well. Mathew M mentions it just before the second kiss.

[jeevanreddy]

Just watched contact just had same question.

[amak]

I thought she went through a worm hole. Could it have not simply returned her to the same point of space time that she left from and so explain the time difference?