5 Things Interstellar's Science Gets Right (And 5 It Doesn't)

4. Those Transmissions Wouldn't Travel

The theory of relativity for some reason doesn't come in for any close scrutiny when it comes to the messages the crew of the Interstellar receive from Earth. The particularly tragic scenes where Coop has accidentally spent twenty five Earth years on one planet, leading to a tearful catching up with decades of messages from his kids as they grow up, get married, and having their own children, and the moment that Murph has to be the on to tell Brand of her dad's own passing - and betrayal - appear to be messages that arrived almost instantaneously. Which, obviously, wouldn't happen. Radio transmissions are pretty powerful things - that's why things like SETI exist, to probe the galaxy for messages that might be pinging about the galaxy from alien civilisations or whatever. It's also why SETI so often get their hopes up over nothing, because they're actually just getting messages from ages ago that are still echoing throughout the cosmos, or else amateur transmissions. Anyway, powerful though they are, they're still susceptible to the vast distances they have to travel to reach the spaceship.