Top 7 striking facts about time

1. Once a year on Earth lasted 486 days, it was about 800 million years ago, before the birth of ancient life in the era of large-scale glaciation of the Earth. Hundreds of millions of years later, in the era of the dinosaurs, the year was reduced to 370 days. He is now, as you know, is 365 days. What is happening? The facts that the Earth rotates more slowly, because it "slows down" lunar gravity.

As a result, the days are getting longer (about 1.7 milliseconds per millennium), and a year - in short.

2. Moment "now", in fact, there is our intention to ease the perception of time. The same Einstein said: "For us who are convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present and future - no more than an illusion, albeit a very persuasive." And here's an illustration to make it clear. The moon that we see "now" - in fact, the image of the Moon, as it was 4.11 seconds back (during which time the light reaches the Earth from the Moon). The sun we see the way it was 81/2 minutes ago. And the nearest star system to the Sun, Alpha Centauri is visible from Earth "outdated" 4.3 years!

3. Time for all differently Firstly, it is distorted by gravity: the closer the object to the gravitational source (for example, to the center of the Earth), the slower time passes. Thus the highest mountain in the world Everest one year at 15 microseconds shorter than at sea level. Secondly, the time depends on the movement of an object in space. As an example, always lead the so-called "twin paradox": if you send a space flight, and the other left on earth, for "traveler" time will be slower than the "couch potato", which means that it will be slower to grow old. This effect just checks on themselves brothers astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly, who became the heroes of our amazing stories about twins. However, in their case, the difference will not be noticeable to the eye. But imagine if they were spaceships the speed of light: A journey to Sirius and back would take you only 2.5 years, but when he returned, you would find that all of your peers on Earth began over 17 years!

4. The man manages to live a 0.16 "space" second Yes, by universal standards, 70-80 years fly by even one second - hundredths of a second! But do not let that upset: to these same standards, the entire history of mankind until the present day easily fits just ... in a half hour. Why so? Astrophysicist and science popularizer Carl Sėĭgo invented "shrink" the entire history of the universe to one conditional calendar year to any individual to understand what happened pace development. After all, if we just say that the universe was born 13.7 billion years ago, and humanity - 2.8 million years ago, we cannot even imagine these giant deadlines; for us and for 100 years - an eternity.

5. The most ancient of the observed object in the universe 13 billion years of the universe It's almost the same age - the oldest and most distant galaxy from Earth ever known to mankind. z8 GND 5296 was discovered in 2013 in the constellation Ursa Major. This means that only now, after 13 billion years, its light finally reached Earth!

6. The oldest object in the world - that this crystal zircon age of 4.4 billion years, it is removed from the earth's crust in Australia, having thus one of the first solid objects of our planet, when it ceased to be a ball of fire covered an ocean of magma.

7. We are all at the mercy of temporary illusion happens many situations where our perception of time is distorted. Time can slow down, speed up, stop, if not go "backward." Here are some common illusions. Kappa effect- when the perception of time is distorted by distance. For example, if several small lamps positioned at different distances from each other and include at regular intervals, then it will seem that the lanterns, which are closer to each other, included "faster" than those between which distance is greater.

Or another example

If two different distances overcome for an equal time, one that was longer, you will find a longer, than the one that was shorter. A sense of frozen time. This happens when your brain is faced with a fundamentally new phenomenon or a task and for a moment as though "stolbeneet." "The effect of curiosities" - the illusion of slowing down time on the background of the usual and familiar things suddenly you see or hear something unusual. In these cases, your brain processes new information a little longer, and as a result it seems that time has slowed. For example, a parachute jump or "bungee" will seem more prolonged than it actually is.