(Time and Space) paradox question?

Question

(Time and Space) paradox question?
Question Details: if a person was traveling to Earth from a distant point 500 light-years away and they were traveling at the speed of light, to the person on Earth would it seem to take the traveler 500 years to reach here? and to the traveler would it still seem and appear to him to take 500 years to reach Earth, even though to a person on Earth the traveler wouldn't have seemed to "age"? understand the question? by the person on Earth's time standards, to and from back to Earth at the speed of light, would appear not to age the traveler 500 years, so does the traveler experience the 500 year time spance traveling at the speed of light?

Answer 1

Aero-engr is on the right track.
Let's examine a hypothetical, yet specific case.

Our traveler starts from a planet 500 light-years away.
Let's say that he travels at 99.99999% of the speed of light (since he can't actually acheive light speed).
According to the travelers watch, the trip will take 82 days.
During his trip scientists on Earth, looking through an imensely powerful telescope, are able to follow his progress from launch to arrival at Earth.
What they would see is this: After witnessing his launch, the traveler would arrive at Earth 82 days later.
This, of course, presupposes the existence of such a telescope.

The taveler and the Earth-bound scientists understand that the trip actually took longer than it appeared, but by appearences alone it took 82 days.
The traveler only ages 82 days because, for him, only 82 days passed.
The telescopic image of the launch, only 82 days before his arrival, was actually delayed 500 years because of the great distance the image had to travel.

Now, about paradoxes.
If anything seems paradoxical, it is an illusion.
Paradoxes can't really happen.
By their very nature they are impossible.
They cannot be created intensionally or accidentally.
The "Twin Paradox" is not a true paradox.
There is no such thing as a "true" paradox.

Answer 2

James -

The answer is no. First of all, he would not be able to reach the speed of light. But, let's say he accelerated to .999 x the speed of light. To him, the trip would take substantially less than 500 years. To the person on earth, he would take all of 500 years, and probably more due to acceleration and deceleration.This is just one of the strange phenomena that has been demonstrated to actually occur in accordance with Einstein's predictions. It does not just "seem" to take less than 500 years. It actually does take less than 500 years in his frame of reference. It is not an illusion, and it has to do with the way the universe works at its most fundamental level. The speed of light is constant; therefore time and space are relative and not constant.

Answer 3

Surprisingly matter decays and ages slower as it travels faster.