How to Time Travel: 5 Methods According to Science

For a long time, the idea of traveling through time was tucked away in the "fiction" section of the library, right next to wizards and space monsters. But in recent years, the conversation has shifted. With mysterious "time traveler" photos popping up on the internet and physicists like Stephen Hawking weighing in, we have to ask: Is time travel actually possible?

According to modern physics, the answer is a surprising yes. We might not have a DeLorean or a blue police box yet, but the blueprints for time travel are already written in the laws of our universe. Here are five ways science says we could pull it off.

1. Chasing the Speed of Light

Albert Einstein was the first to show us that time isn’t a constant; it’s flexible. His theory of special relativity suggests that time slows down or speeds up depending on how fast you move.

Imagine you’re on a spaceship traveling at 99% the speed of light. While you’re cruising through the stars, time for you would slow down significantly compared to the people back on Earth. If you traveled for a few years at that speed and returned, you might find that decades, or even centuries, had passed at home. You’d essentially be a time traveler to the future. The catch? This method is a one-way ticket; it doesn't let you go back to the past.

2. The Einstein-Rosen Bridge (Wormholes)

In 1935, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen proposed the existence of "bridges" that connect two different points in space-time. These are better known as wormholes.

Theoretically, a wormhole could act as a shortcut through the universe. If you could stabilize one and move one end of it at light speed before bringing it back, you’d create a time loop. You could step in one end and come out the other in a different era. The problem? We haven’t found one yet, and if they do exist, they are likely smaller than an atom and incredibly unstable.

3. Hugging a Black Hole

Black holes are nature's most extreme time machines. Because they possess such an intense gravitational field, they actually warp the fabric of time around them.

If you were to park a spaceship just outside the Event Horizon (the "point of no return") of a massive black hole, time would tick much more slowly for you than for someone far away. Spend a few hours "hugging" the edge of a black hole, and when you fly away, you could find that thousands of years have passed in the rest of the galaxy. It’s the ultimate way to leapfrog into the deep future.

4. Cosmic Strings: Cracks in the Universe

Some scientists believe the universe is woven with "cosmic strings", thinner than an atom but carrying massive amounts of mass and gravitational pull.

These strings are thought to be "cracks" left over from the Big Bang. If you could find two cosmic strings and pull them close together, they would bend space-time so violently that they could create a path to the past. By navigating the warped gravity between them, you could theoretically propel yourself back to see the dinosaurs, or just place a very lucrative bet on last year's Super Bowl.

5. The Tipler Cylinder

In 1974, physicist Frank Tipler proposed a more "mechanical" approach. He theorized that if you took a massive, infinitely long cylinder and spun it at nearly half the speed of light, it would create a "frame-dragging" effect.

This would warp space-time into a closed loop. If a spacecraft flew around this cylinder in the right direction, it would follow a "closed timelike curve," essentially traveling backward through time. It’s a brilliant theory, though building an "infinitely long" cylinder is a bit of a logistical nightmare for now!

Bonus: Suspended Animation

If physics feels too complicated, there’s always the "Vanilla Sky" approach: Suspended Animation. NASA is currently researching hibernation chambers that could put humans into a deep sleep for long-term space travel. While you aren't technically "bending" time, you are stopping your body’s clock while the rest of the world moves on. You could wake up 100 years later, essentially "arriving" in the future without having aged a day.