/sci/ - Science & Math

Up until a few weeks ago I was one of those people who, when thinking of spaceflight, thought "yeah even if we get ships to fly very fast, things are so fucking far and many light years away, whats the point?". Then during work, I was reading up on time dilation and how relativity is affected when you are in a ship constantly accelerating. I was reading this when I realized that to the observer standing on the ship, he can potentially cross the fucking universe in his lifetime due to time dilation. I kept trying to argue myself that even if traveling near speed of light, the distance doesn't chance. But the passage of time for the observer on the ship does, so what feels like a few seconds can be thousands of light years? Do I understand that correctly?

I know its a brainlet concept in the grand scheme of things but it fucking blew my mind and gets me amped up... I wish we had more answers