Just because time is relative does not mean time is subjective. Time is a fundamental objective part of reality, and time and distance relativity is probably less weird than you think it is. There …
In other words earth appears older (as measured by the relative time between the said two events) to the moving observer than to someone living on earth.
It’s fine and to be expected that time passes differently with different levels of time dilation. You might have Reference Frame A where the time flow rate is 99.999% of the maximum and Frame B where the time flow rate is 99.998% of the maximum. The time flow rate in Frame A is faster than B, because A is closer to the maximum rate than B.
This is where my comment about “two points in time” come from:
Think of “two points in time” as 2 events in time, and (for simplicity) at the same fixed point in space in your frame of reference (A) and another person’s frame of reference (B). Whichever frame is under the greater influence of gravitational time dilation, will have a slower time flow rate than the other frame. But there is also a maximum amount of time between the 2 events that neither of those 2 frames (or any other frame of reference) can exceed.
without the spatial information, I wouldn’t be able to compare different relative times and pick its maximum.
Figuring out the maximum time flow rate between any 2 events or points in time would not be a simple thing at all. You would have to calculate the entire amount of gravitational time dilation of every gravity field in range of your object, and add to that the total amount of time dilation due to acceleration of your object. But just because the total amount of time dilation is not a simple thing to calculate and add to your equations, does not mean that “zero time dilation” == “maximum time flow rate” does not exist nor that there is not a maximum amount of relative time duration between any 2 events/point in time. I assume you agree that there is a maximum amount of relative distance between any 2 objects/points in space right? There is also a maximum amount of relative duration between any 2 events/points in time. And the length contraction that shrinks distance length is related to the time dilation that shrinks time duration.
but if you could point me to some accessible references that would be very much appreciated!
I hate to mention reddit here but this reddit comment explains it better than I can.
[It’s likely based on the proper time of a comoving observer in simplified cosmological solutions of general relativity. A comoving observer is an observer whose ‘motion’ is due to the expansion of the universe, not any motion with respect to the comoving frame. The cosmological solutions are also isotropic and homogenous, so there are no clumps of matter like black holes to influence time - the comoving proper time is the same everywhere and can be considered a maximum time.]
It’s fine and to be expected that time passes differently with different levels of time dilation. You might have Reference Frame A where the time flow rate is 99.999% of the maximum and Frame B where the time flow rate is 99.998% of the maximum. The time flow rate in Frame A is faster than B, because A is closer to the maximum rate than B.
Think of “two points in time” as 2 events in time, and (for simplicity) at the same fixed point in space in your frame of reference (A) and another person’s frame of reference (B). Whichever frame is under the greater influence of gravitational time dilation, will have a slower time flow rate than the other frame. But there is also a maximum amount of time between the 2 events that neither of those 2 frames (or any other frame of reference) can exceed.
Figuring out the maximum time flow rate between any 2 events or points in time would not be a simple thing at all. You would have to calculate the entire amount of gravitational time dilation of every gravity field in range of your object, and add to that the total amount of time dilation due to acceleration of your object. But just because the total amount of time dilation is not a simple thing to calculate and add to your equations, does not mean that “zero time dilation” == “maximum time flow rate” does not exist nor that there is not a maximum amount of relative time duration between any 2 events/point in time. I assume you agree that there is a maximum amount of relative distance between any 2 objects/points in space right? There is also a maximum amount of relative duration between any 2 events/points in time. And the length contraction that shrinks distance length is related to the time dilation that shrinks time duration.
I hate to mention reddit here but this reddit comment explains it better than I can.
https://www.reddit.com/r/cosmology/comments/14dg7yf/saying_that_the_universe_is_138_billion_years_old/joq3n5i/
[It’s likely based on the proper time of a comoving observer in simplified cosmological solutions of general relativity. A comoving observer is an observer whose ‘motion’ is due to the expansion of the universe, not any motion with respect to the comoving frame. The cosmological solutions are also isotropic and homogenous, so there are no clumps of matter like black holes to influence time - the comoving proper time is the same everywhere and can be considered a maximum time.]