This article was taken from the February 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
To get ahead in life, spend some time on the International Space Station (ISS). Why? Well, according to the theory of relativity, astronauts on the ISS age more slowly due to the spacecraft's high orbital speed. It's called time dilation and it means that when they return they're a bit younger than they would have been -- as if they've travelled into the future. (The effect is tiny -- more than 100 years on the ISS will warp you ahead by one second.) But not all space travel will keep you young. Like speed, gravity also slows time, so your clock revs up as you get further from a large mass such as Earth. As a result, satellites in higher orbits age more quickly. But there's a sweet spot 3,174 kilometres above Earth's surface, where the effects of increased speed and reduced gravity cancel each other out. You can hang out there as long as you like without fear of relativistic repercussions.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
