Earth logo

Our Universe Has Scars, and They Might Unlock Time Travel

Fact about universe!!

By Riya singhPublished 10 months ago 6 min read

guess what the universe can get actual scars just like when you fall off a bike well here's why before the Big Bang the universe was extremely hot dense and full of energy and it seemed like everything was going well until that all changed about 13.8 billion years ago then the universe exploded after the blast it expanded incredibly quickly our human brain can't even perceive how fast that expansion was sometime later the universe started cooling down as it did giant terrifying scars cutting through SpaceTime appeared all over the place and if we study these scars well we can even get insight into time travel these days we call these scars cosmic strings they're like stretch marks that appear when the skin expands too quickly or we could also compare them to cracks that form in the ice when it freezes these strings are likely very thin about the size of a proton a positively charged subatomic particle yes subatomic means smaller than an atom the strings are also extremely dense and can stretch for light years now imagine these Cosmic scars floating through space not interacting much with their surroundings when two cosmic strings pass each other they could warp SpaceTime in such a way that it creates a time machine if you were to travel along a certain path around these strings you would end up returning to your starting point at an earlier time which is traveling back in time now let's admit it this idea sounds like something from science fiction but it's supported by Cosmic string theory and the math behind it seems to work unfortunately no one has observed cosmic strings yet so for now it's still a theory in 1991 one physicist proposed an idea for how cosmic strings could enable time travel if two two infinite cosmic strings pass each other in parallel they would warp space time creating a Time Loop this Loop would allow someone to travel back in time even better this idea doesn't contradict Einstein's theory of general relativity which suggests that large objects can bend space and time these bends in space time could allow a shortcut through time his now well-known concept of closed time Loops also helps explain how wormholes might work so a wormhole is basically a theoretical tunnel connecting one place in space to another some people believe that by using such tunnels we could create shortcuts for incredibly long Journeys through the universe which would allow us to visit other star systems and galaxies so let's say you manag to create a wormhole and even accelerate one of its ends to near the speed of light and then you send it back to where it came from well at that moment those two ends are not synced anymore one is in the past while the other is in the future and if you somehow manage to walk between them you'd be time traveling you could do something similar by placing one end of the Wormhole near a powerful gravitational field like a black hole and keeping the other side near a weaker gravitational force this way according to the theory of relativity time would pass more slowly nearer to the strong gravity side and it would allow a part or another chunk of Mass to remain in the past relative to the other side of the Wormhole at the same time if you decided to create a wormhole you'd have to keep in mind that they are super dangerous they might collapse all of a sudden they're likely to be highly radioactive or you could come into contact with toxic exotic matter inside but let's get back to the math behind the cosmic string time machine idea admittedly it is solid but it doesn't mean such a Time machine is possible yet to use this way of time travel we'd need to reach near light speed and it might be impossible according to Einstein's relativity the faster an object travels the more energy it needs to continue speeding up in other words we don't yet have the technology or energy sources to accelerate a spacecraft to these speeds the idea of two infinite cosmic strings is also questionable because we can't create something something that's infinitely long so while this time travel model is mathematically sound the infinite nature of the strings would make this exact model impractical at the same time some scientists still believe that cosmic strings are a better possibility than most other models like wormholes in any case before we can start considering time travel we need to discover cosmic strings luckily there's a group of astronomers working to detect low frequency gravitational Waves by measuring signals from a type of star called a pulsar now pulsars send out regular pulses of radio waves and by measuring small changes in the timing of these pulses scientists can detect subtle shifts in space time those changes are caused by gravitational waves which are ripples in SpaceTime now so far we've only detected gravitational waves coming from black holes but in 2020 there was one strange signal that didn't look like it came from black holes it could be coming from cosmic strings and here we need to mention String Theory according to it the universe is made up of more than just the four dimensions of SpaceTime there are additional Dimensions that are hidden from us plus the basic building blocks of the universe aren't particles but tiny vibrating strings these strings can vibrate at different frequencies to create different fundamental particles these strings from String Theory could have stretched out during the early universe and become the very cosmic strings we've discussed in the coming years we might get more information about them from a space-based gravitational wave telescope called Lisa it's supposed to launch in 2035 but if the signals picked up in 2020 really came from cosmic strings it could mean a huge breakthrough in physics in this case String Theory would become the right framework for understanding the universe it would completely change the way we think about the building blocks of our reality on the other hand even if the signals don't turn out to be from cosmic strings this discovery would still be important it would give scientists more information on what Cosmic string signals might look like in the future and while we're not yet at the point of time travel the discovery of cosmic strings could take us one step closer to understanding the mysteries of the universe and maybe even the possibility of traveling through time now time travel is a popular theme in science fiction but in fact moving forward in time happens naturally right now you are traveling into the future at a steady rate of 1 second per second however scientists have discovered that this rate can change depending on speed and gravity Einstein's special theory of relativity explains that time slows down as an object moves faster the closer you get to the speed of light the more slowly time passes for you compared to someone who isn't moving at all the general theory of relativity adds another Factor Gravity the stronger the gravitational pull the more slowly time moves near massive objects such as the surface of a neutron star black hole or even Earth time runs more slowly than it does far away from these space objects if someone were to stay near the edge of a black hole where gravity is incredibly strong only a few hours might pass for them while thousands of years would go by for people on Earth if they returned they would have effectively traveled into the future this is a real and scientifically proven effect a real life example of time travel though on a tiny scale can be witnessed in space missions for example this Cosmonaut spent a total of 748 days aboard the space station Mir during three separate missions because was moving at high speeds relative to Earth it experienced time dilation as a result he aged hunds of a second less than had he stayed on the ground now this difference may seem tiny but it shows that time moves differently depending on speed and location but while traveling to the future is scientifically possible traveling to the past is much more complicated and controversial and leads to logical paradoxes imagine you throw a billiard ball into a time machine it travels to the past and collides with its earlier self this prevents the ball from ever entering the time machine in the first place a contradiction.

Science

About the Creator

Riya singh

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments (1)

Sign in to comment
  • Jason “Jay” Benskin10 months ago

    The idea that remnants from ancient cosmic events could hold the key to unlocking time itself sparks so much curiosity. Your writing really brings the wonder of the universe to life. Fantastic work!

Find us on social media

Miscellaneous links

  • Explore
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Support

© 2026 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.