I haven't done the math, but is it really possible for time dilation at or around the speed of light to have the effect of compressing 50,000 years into 10? That's a difference of 5,000 times.
By "possible" I mean "as the theory would prescribe," of course...
As for time dilation, it's a very simple formula called Lorentz Contraction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Length_contraction. At 0.99996c, you can cross the Milky Way (100,000 ly) in one year.
I don't know any of the details though.
isn't this an oft quoted erroneous conclusion?
I thought the correct statement was that matter could not accellerate to the speed of light. Thus something could instantaneously attain FTL/Light Speed velocity or come into existance travelling FTL/Light Speed?
That was Kevin Spacey's claim in the movie K-Pax.
For all I know, we're falling through time at the speed of light.
You can choose ANY time dilation factor and determine a velocity accordingly, because the graph is asymptotic and continuous.
[EDIT: I mean, obviously, the whole thing breaks down with an observer actually AT light speed; assume above that I'm talking about taking limits of the Lorentz factor as velocity approaches 1]
So I would guess, hell, yes!
(I recommend "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman for serious time dilation fun.)