Okay, so time travel has been gigantic for centuries, combining incredible sci-fi ideas with actual science. Now, as it turns out, traveling back in time like you watch on the movies might not be an option, but some forms of time travel? Physics mandates that those are possible.

Can We Go to the Future?

Yes, it is theoretically possible to take a trip to the future. We have already experienced it to a degree in something referred to as time slowing down. Einstein’s theory of relativity foresees it.

• Time Slowing: Basically, when something moves super, super fast (practically at the speed of light), time goes slow for it relative to someone who isn’t moving. Picture the twin example: if one twin goes zooming off into space at high speed, they’ll end up being younger than the twin who’s chillin’ on Earth.
• Real Examples: Scientists put atomic clocks on airplanes, and the clocks on the fast-moving planes ticked a very small fraction slower than the clocks on the ground. That proves time is different with velocity.

What About Going Back to the Past?

Going in the reverse direction is much harder and is mostly just a theoretical concept.

• Time Loops (CTCs): Some scientists feel that these spacetime loops could potentially enable you to travel through time. Some newer studies fiddle with the maths and say even if you do go back and make a nuisance of yourself (like the grandfather paradox), it could all work out okay in the end.
• Quantum Stuff: There are scientists who claim that time can become strange on a small scale, and that may result in time being reversed in certain locations. That does not, however, imply that we can travel back in time.

The Science View

Hopping into the future? Science is like, “No worries.” Back to the future? That remains a giant question mark with lots of issues. The reasoning is:

time travel may well be achievable in some freak cases with some zany physics.

• But actually to make it work is way, way beyond us currently.

Bottom line:

We’re all journeying to the future anyway at all times. But real backward time travel like in the films has some serious hurdles. Scientists are still investigating it, so who knows? Maybe one day we’ll turn around what we believed we knew about time.