If we had an object in space with an incredible amount of mass ...?

Question

bigger than our sun and capable to create a massive dent in the space/time coordinate plane,due to it's gravity, could we essentially move from point A on one side of the coordinate plane to point B in a much shorter time? Basically from one side of the massive object to the other, in other words.

This is the law of general relativity, right?

Answer 1

Perhaps you are thinking of a gravitational slingshot. Consider an analogy. A frictionless car is moving steadily on level ground at 60 MPH. It takes this car a minute to travel a mile. If instead the road drops steeply at your origin but returns to its original elevation at your destination. Because you cover most of the distance at a higher speed, it takes you less than a minute. The warpage of spacetime can be viewed as this kind of hill, a potential well.

Answer 2

Hmmm....without any massive object in the way, then the path from A to B would be a straight line (assuming no implicit curvature of spacetime) and that would be the quickest route. (no wormholes here) Placing an object in the way increases the curvature of spacetime in that region. The ultimate mass would be a black hole which would make it impossible to reach point B. In other words, the time would be infinite. The trend would seem to be the shortest time with no mass then increasing time as mass increases up to the point of a rupture in space time where time is infinite. However, as distance increases due to curvature, speed increases due to gravitational forces. The key is that curvature increases total distance but gravity is only increasing speed on the approach and is decreasing speed on the other side. This would cancel out leaving us with a greater distance to cover in a curved space. I would think it should take longer to reach point B with a massive object in the way. Are we considering speeds approaching the speed of light where time dilation would have a noticeable effect?

Answer 3

sorta but the resistance to gravitational pull is out of current global capabilities