Inspired from many stories and movies like “Back to the Future”, everyone dreams of traveling back in time for many different reasons. Scientists and Astrophysicists are also keen to pursue this subject and after an immense struggle, they have been able to say that they know how to turn this fictional idea into a reality.

One such astrophysicist named Ron Mallett was confident that he had theoretically found a way to travel to the past. In an interview with CNN, he said that he has written a scientific equation that can be used as the basis for the actual time machine. He further said that using this equation, he had made a preliminary version of the time machine to demonstrate the main components of his theory to the world.

Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity performed an exceptional role in the making of Mallett’s time machine. Einstein’s theory of relativity states that time accelerates or decelerates depending upon the speed at which an object is moving. Based on this theory Mallett thought that if a person is traveling at the speed of light in a spaceship, time will pass slowly compared to the time passed by someone on Earth. Basically, this means that an astronaut can go around space in less than a week, but a decade would pass by the time of his return to earth.

Many physicists do agree that while going forward in time is possible, traveling back in time is not. This raised another issue, but Mallett proposed that by using lasers he can make that possible too.

For traveling back in time, the astrophysicist again used Einstein’s theory that states that space-time is bent by gigantic objects subject to gravity. The stronger the gravity is, the slower time passes and vice versa. Mallett told CNN that in Einstein’s theory when we talk of space, we involve time in it too and that’s why it is called space time, whatever you do to space also happens with time. He further said that if you can bend space, the possibility exists that you can twist it too.

Mallett argued that it is possible to bend time into a hoop or a loop, doing this will allow time to travel to the past. Using lasers, he even built a prototype and argued that by carefully studying the type of gravitational field that was produced by a ring laser, a new way of looking at the possibility of a time machine could be found based on a circulating ray of light.

Mallet is extremely positive about the success of his work, but his colleagues are doubtful whether he is on the right path to a working time machine or not. Astrophysicist Paul Sutter expressed his reservations on Mallett’s work as he identified some mathematical errors and mistakes in his theory.