A Journey to Miller’s Planet: The Ultimate Time Travel Destination

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5 Sept 2023
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If you are a fan of science fiction and adventure, you might have dreamed of traveling to another planet and exploring its wonders. But what if you could also travel to another time, where every hour is equal to seven years on Earth? That is the case for Miller’s Planet, a fictional planet from the movie Interstellar that orbits a gigantic black hole and has enormous waves and a watery surface.


What is the story behind Miller’s Planet?

Miller’s Planet is named after Dr. Laura Miller, one of the 12 astronauts who were sent by NASA to find a new home for humanity through a wormhole near Saturn. She landed on the planet with her Lazarus pod and activated a positive beacon, indicating that the planet was habitable. However, she did not know that she was under the influence of a massive black hole called Gargantua, which distorted time and space around her.

Miller’s Planet is a waterworld, with no land or life forms visible. The planet’s gravity is 30% higher than Earth’s, making it hard for humans to move around. The most striking feature of the planet is its huge tidal waves, which are created by Gargantua’s spin and orbital resonance with the planet. These waves are about 1,200 meters high and travel at 800 kilometers per hour. They can easily wipe out anything on their path.


Risks of visiting Miller’s Planet

Miller’s Planet is not a safe place to visit. Besides the high gravity and the giant waves, the planet also suffers from extreme time dilation due to its proximity to Gargantua. One hour on Miller’s Planet is equivalent to seven years on Earth. This means that any communication or signal from the planet would be delayed by a long time. It also means that any visitor would age much slower than their counterparts on Earth or on their spaceship.

In the movie Interstellar, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and his team decide to check out Miller’s Planet after receiving Dr. Miller’s beacon. They hope to find a suitable world for human colonization as part of their mission to save Earth from a global catastrophe. However, they soon discover that they have made a grave mistake. Dr. Miller had died shortly after arriving on the planet, probably killed by one of the waves. Her beacon was still sending a signal because of the time dilation. The team also loses valuable time and resources on the planet, as every hour they spend there means seven years have passed on Earth and on their spaceship Endurance. They barely manage to get away from the planet after losing one of their members, Dr. Doyle (Wes Bentley), who was too slow to reach their craft and was drowned by a wave.


Scientific facts behind Miller’s Planet

Miller’s Planet is a fictional creation, but it is based on some real scientific concepts and calculations. The movie Interstellar consulted with famous physicist Kip Thorne, who provided the theoretical basis and visual effects for the portrayal of Gargantua and its planets. Thorne explained that Miller’s Planet is shaped like an American football with one end always facing Gargantua. He also calculated that the time dilation factor for Miller’s Planet is exactly 1 hour per 7 years, based on the assumption that Gargantua is a rapidly spinning black hole with an angular momentum of 0.998 times its mass.

Thorne also answered some of the questions and criticisms that have been raised about Miller’s Planet. For example, how can the planet survive so close to the black hole without being ripped apart by its gravity? Thorne answered that there is a single stable orbit just outside of Gargantua’s event horizon that is very stable. He also explained that the waves are not caused by Gargantua’s tides but by its spin dragging space around it and creating an orbital resonance with Miller’s Planet. He admitted that some aspects of Miller’s Planet are speculative or exaggerated, such as the height of the waves or the absence of land or life on the planet.



Time on Miller's planet

According to the movie Interstellar, Miller’s Planet is a fictional planet that orbits a supermassive black hole called Gargantua. Because of the strong gravitational field of Gargantua, time on Miller’s Planet passes very slowly compared to Earth. One hour on Miller’s Planet is equal to seven years on Earth. This phenomenon is known as gravitational time dilation, which states that the stronger the gravitational potential, the slower time passes. This means that anyone who visits Miller’s Planet would age much slower than their friends and family on Earth or on their spaceship.

How does gravity affect time and space?

Gravity is one of the most fundamental forces in nature, but it also has some surprising effects on time and space. According to Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, gravity is not just a force that attracts objects to each other, but also a property of the fabric of the universe, which can bend and stretch in response to the presence of mass and energy. This means that gravity can affect the shape and size of space, as well as the rate of time.

One way to understand how gravity affects time and space is to imagine a rubber sheet that represents the space-time continuum. If you place a heavy object, such as a bowling ball, on the sheet, it will create a dent or a curve in the sheet. This is how gravity warps space. Now, if you roll a marble on the sheet, it will follow the curve created by the bowling ball. This is how gravity affects the motion of objects in space. The marble will move faster near the bowling ball and slower away from it. This is also how gravity affects time.

According to Einstein’s theory, the speed of light is constant in a vacuum, regardless of the observer’s motion or position. However, when light travels through a curved space-time, it appears to slow down or speed up depending on the strength of gravity. This is because light has to travel a longer or shorter distance in a curved space-time than in a flat one. This effect is called gravitational time dilation, and it means that time passes differently for observers in different gravitational fields.

For example, if you have two identical clocks, one on Earth and one on a spaceship orbiting a black hole, they will tick at different rates. The clock on the spaceship will tick slower than the clock on Earth because the spaceship is closer to the strong gravitational field of the black hole. This means that if you spend one hour on the spaceship, more than one hour will have passed on Earth. This effect has been confirmed by experiments using atomic clocks on airplanes and satellites.

Gravity also affects space by stretching or shrinking it depending on the direction of motion. This effect is called gravitational length contraction, and it means that objects appear longer or shorter depending on their orientation relative to the gravitational field. For example, if you have two identical rods, one parallel and one perpendicular to the gravitational field, they will have different lengths. The rod parallel to the field will be shorter than the rod perpendicular to it. This effect is very small and only noticeable near very strong gravitational fields.

Gravity is not only a force that shapes our universe but also a phenomenon that reveals its mysteries. By studying how gravity affects time and space, we can learn more about the nature of reality and the origin of our cosmos.


Gravitational time dilation

Gravitational time dilation is a phenomenon that occurs when the passage of time is affected by the presence of a gravitational field. The stronger the gravitational field, the slower time passes for an observer in that field. This means that two clocks that are at different distances from a massive object, such as a black hole, will measure different amounts of time for the same event. This effect has been predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and confirmed by various experiments.

One example of gravitational time dilation is the fictional planet from the movie Interstellar, called Miller’s Planet. This planet orbits very close to a supermassive black hole named Gargantua, which has a very strong gravitational field. As a result, one hour on Miller’s Planet is equivalent to seven years on Earth. This means that anyone who visits this planet would age much slower than their friends and family on Earth or on their spaceship.

Gravitational time dilation is not only a fascinating concept in science fiction but also a real phenomenon that affects our everyday lives. For instance, the GPS satellites that orbit the Earth have to take into account the gravitational time dilation caused by the Earth’s mass and the satellites’ speed. If they did not correct for this effect, their clocks would be out of sync with the clocks on Earth and the GPS system would not work properly.

Conclusion 🙌

Miller’s Planet is one of the most amazing and terrifying worlds in science fiction. It challenges our imagination and our understanding of physics and astronomy. It also shows us how precious and fragile life is in this vast and mysterious universe.

😒Would you like to visit Miller’s Planet if you had the opportunity? What would you do if you were trapped there for an hour? Share your thoughts in the comments below!💬👇


I hope you like this article, and learn something new. If you have any question or comments, please feel free to share them with me. I would love to hear from you. And if you want to learn more exoplanets, astronomy, A.I and other science topics, please check out our other articles and resources.



📚 Sources:


(1) Miller's Planet - ArcGIS StoryMaps | ArcGIS StoryMaps.
(2) Miller (planet) | Interstellar Wiki | Fandom | Interstellar Wiki.
(3) Miller’s Water Planet Explained and How Time Dilation Worked - TechEBlog | TechEBlog.
(4) Interstellar's Time Dilation Explained: Why Time Moves Slower On Miller ... | Screen Rant.
(5) How did Romilly survive 23 years on the Endurance? | Stack Exchange.
(6) Understanding gravity—warps and ripples in space and time | Science.org.au.
(7) How Gravity Changes Time: The Effect Known as Gravitational Time Dilation | The Science Explorer.
(8) Why does gravity affect time? | Socratic.
(9) Gravitational time dilation - Wikipedia.
(10) Gravitational Time Dilation, a Derivation - Physics LibreTexts.


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