Consider a pair of brothers, identical twins. One gets a job as an astronaut and rockets into space. The other gets a job as an astronaut, too, but on this occasion he decides to stay home. After a year in space, the traveling twin returns home and they reunite. <\/p>\n
Are the identical twins still identical? <\/p>\n
NASA is about to find out. <\/p>\n
In March of 2015, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly will join cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko on a one-year mission to the International Space Station. <\/p>\n
Their lengthy stay aims to explore the effects of long-term space flight on the human body. <\/p>\n
The interesting thing about Scott is, he's a twin. His brother Mark is also an astronaut, now retired. <\/p>\n
While Scott, the test subject, spends one year circling Earth at 17,000 miles per hour, Mark will remain behind as a control. <\/p>\n
We will be taking samples and making measurements of the twins before, during, and after the one-year mission, said Craig Kundrot of NASA's Human Research Program at the Johnson Space Center. For the first time, we'll be able two individuals who are genetically identical. <\/p>\n
The experiment harkens back to Einstein's Twin Paradox, a thought experiment in which one twin rockets to the stars at high speed while the other stays home. <\/p>\n
According to Einstein's theory of relativity, the traveling twin should return younger than his brother strange but true. <\/p>\n
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Read more:<\/p>\n
Space News: NASA to conduct unprecedented twin experiment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Consider a pair of brothers, identical twins. One gets a job as an astronaut and rockets into space. The other gets a job as an astronaut, too, but on this occasion he decides to stay home Continue reading