Sending people into space is very important culturally. That's really the justification. You cannot rationally justify it on the basis of the science and technology we get out of it. Kip Thorne More Quotes by Kip Thorne More Quotes From Kip Thorne Gravitational waves will bring us exquisitely accurate maps of black holes - maps of their space-time. Those maps will make it crystal clear whether or not what were dealing with are black holes as described by general relativity. Kip Thorne maps black space The right answer is seldom as important as the right question. Kip Thorne right-answers important answers A black hole really is an object with very rich structure, just like Earth has a rich structure of mountains, valleys, oceans, and so forth. Its warped space whirls around the central singularity like air in a tornado. Kip Thorne ocean space air Closed timelike curve is the jargon for time travel. It means you go out, come back and meet yourself in the past. Kip Thorne curves mean past Whether you can go back in time is held in the grip of the law of quantum gravity. We are several decades away from a definitive understanding, 20 or 30 years, but it could be sooner than that. Kip Thorne understanding law years When gravitational waves reach the earth, the waves stretch and squeeze space. This is a tiny stretch and squeeze. Far too small to detect with ordinary human senses. Kip Thorne space earth ordinary If you have a wormhole, then you can turn them into time machines for going backward in time. Kip Thorne wormholes time-machine machines For us to spend basically a half-century since the three of us started working in this field, to have it actually be pulled off successfully in the manner we dreamed – it was really remarkable and wonderful, i'm forever grateful to the team that got it done. Kip Thorne science When Galileo first trained his optic telescope on the heavens and opened up modern optical astronomy, that was the first of the electromagnetic windows out of the universe: light. Kip Thorne up astronomy universe light I'm a real klutz computationally, so Mathematica is just ideal for me. Kip Thorne ideal just me real We see no objects in our universe that could become wormholes as they age. Kip Thorne become see universe age I can enjoy 'Harry Potter' and 'Star Trek,' but I really appreciate hard science fiction. Kip Thorne enjoy appreciate i-can science The essential point is that, although coordinates are a powerful, and sometimes essential, tool in many calculations, the fundamental laws of physics can be expressed without the aid of coordinates; and, indeed, their coordinate-free expressions are generally elegant and exceedingly powerful. Kip Thorne without physics powerful sometimes Each black hole spins on its axis like the Earth spins. That spin creates two vortexes of twisting space, somewhat like vortexes in a bathtub or a whirlpool. Kip Thorne like black space earth We're going to need a definitive quantum theory of gravity, which is part of a grand unified theory - it's the main missing piece. Kip Thorne going need gravity missing We have to have a combination of general relativity that describes the warping of space and time, and quantum physics, which describes the uncertainties in that warping and how they change. Kip Thorne physics space change time The human race has a yearning to explore. That's part of our biological and psychological makeup. Kip Thorne explore human makeup race A big misconception is that a black hole is made of matter that has just been compacted to a very small size. That's not true. A black hole is made from warped space and time. Kip Thorne black space matter time As early as I can remember, I wanted to be a snowplow driver. When you grow up in the Rocky Mountains, like I did, you see the snow drifts piled up six feet high, and you're two feet, so it's impressive. Kip Thorne mountains grow you remember I became interested in this question of whether you can build wormholes for interstellar travel. I realized that if you had a wormhole, the theory of general relativity by itself would permit you to go backward in time. Kip Thorne go you time travel
