Does the process of Aging slow down in Space

I had a discussion today with a friend of mine and he had mention that when in space the aging process slows down? has anyone heard of this? Like say if while one was up in space floating around it would take one longer to age. I myself have not ever heard of this.

Define ageing.

You'll age faster due to gravity, but slower due to the large velocities attained. As for actual ageing, well, that's basically stress on the body, which going into space puts a lot on you. Put simply: you have less wrinkles and are taller but you lose bone density at about 1% a month (all because of gravity)

the only thing I can add is that if your near a black hole, time will slow down. yes I know Black Holes are not proven but this was what Ilearned the other night off Discovery 'Daily Planet'.

Suppose there are other members here who can fill in the gaps-dunno?

Dallas

Well Technically not being on Earth and not orbiting around the sun (working on the assumption that your not in fact in solar orbit) you would not add 'years' to your life... but physically... i dont see why you wouldnt...

I have an aunt that causes me to age... But on to the question at hand. You must be referring to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (Special), in which a person moving at a high velocity (like near the speed of light) will age slower than someone wasting all their time on Earth.

perkel.com
If you got in a rocket ship and accelerated you could go what seems infinitely fast to you. You could travel to a star 100 light years away and get there by lunch, turn around, and get back to Earth the same day. But you will find that everyone else is 200 years (and one day) older than you are. From their perspective, you were traveling very close to the speed of light and it take 200 years for light to get to that star and back. But to you, it was only a day. Your aging slowed down because you move forward through time faster. What you observe as linear acceleration in space that obeys Newton's laws, isn't what really happens. You start out accelerating in space but as you gain speed you start accelerating through time instead. You can only move at the speed of light in space, but can move infinitely fast through time.

www.perkel.com...

For those with a penchant for intellectual abuse/pursuit:

hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...

General information:

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

Is your friend refering to space as a nearvacuum area void of most gravitational forces? IF so, it is hard to define what he means by this. Was he refering to humans? IF so, no. The gravitational void atmosphere of space causes the human skeletal system to compromise under its original intent which could lead to breaks in blood vessels or the bones themselves.

I imagine the radiation in space would "age" you faster, rather than slower....

My english is not very good but I'll try to explain what I think about this:
Aerobical organisms like sponges, birds, apes and humans, age principally because of the damage the oxigen they breathe inflicts to their cells, quite like the damage it inflicts to a car or a metallic knife. The more active your body is, more oxigen you consume and therefore, the more you age. (+activity or work = more oxigen consumption = more agin or even more probability to get cancer)
For example if you go everywere in a car you'll suposedly age slower than if you go everiwhere running. A experiment have been made in wich a mouse was allowed to do all the exersice it wanted, an another was confined on a box or something like that. The first mouse lived 2 years, the average life for a mouse, but amazingly, the second mouse lived 4 years! This experiment was repeated several times with diferent animals with the same results. Also, the amount of calories the subjects of the experiment consumed seemed to increase their aging speed. (more calories consumed = more oxigen used for burning them = more aging and again, more cancer)
So going back to the question, I believe that being in space without gravity, a human would make less effort to move around than someone that would be on earth, having to make a force equal to his weight just to get up. Then, the human in space, would consume less oxigen than the one in earth and teherefore would age slower. I'm not sure if I'm right about this, but I wanted to share my thougts with you. Also, I think than someone whearing a mechanical exoesqueleton that boosted his strenght would also consume less oxigen and age slower, wich would be a good reason to develop such technology, altought some people think that exosqueletons should be used for killing people (for war) that for helping them. what do you think about this? It makes me so angry to think about it...

Oh, my name is Martin and I am from Argentina, a country whose name means aproximately "silver", altought there is little silver here, he he

Originally posted by Netchicken
I imagine the radiation in space would "age" you faster, rather than slower....

This is just what my mom has told me now. She says you age faster. hmmmm

The effects of weightlessness are a lot like the many affects of becoming elderly. That is one of the main reasons why they sent John Glenn back into space on the shuttle.

But i think being in space would make the affects of old age a lot more bareble. Just think, instead of having them on earth we can have retirement homes in space and on the moon

If it did slow down the age process, then we could go there for awhile and stay young LOL . Is this why John Glen looks so good at his age. ??

i was watching discovery and 2 days ago they asked almost the exact same question an the answer is, is depending on the gravity or speed time goes by slower and gave an exampe that someone hovering right outside a black hole by the time a year would go by for them 1000 of years would go by for someone here on earth

actually thinking back now i think i must have been watching daily planet (just like dallas)

and i cant remember for sure but im pritty sure the faster u went the slower u would age and the more gravity their was acting on you or something you would also age slower (with more gravity)

[edit on 6-8-2005 by trust_no_one]

[edit on 6-8-2005 by trust_no_one]

and what about what I said? I think the efect of speed and gravity are very small compared to the efect of less oxigen consumption on aging in space. What do you think about it? sorry if I seem rude, is just because of my bad english, I don't kwnow what are the rigth words to use, think I'll improve with time...
If we could eliminate muscular and bone loss on a enviroment with less gravity, I think a human living in space would live longer than one living in earth. Of, course, if he would have to live in the tiny ISS, his life would be very, very sad, or at least it would be that way for me.

So... Time slows down nearing a Black Hole? did they say on this show why this happens? also can Time be measured? I think what I am trying to say is can Time be measured by speed?