I bought the textbook for my modern physics class next semester early. Right now I'm reading about time dilation and length contraction. One example deals with a rocket moving at 0.9c toward a star 4 light years away. From the earth's perspective, the trip would take 4.4 years. However, confusingly, the trip from the rocket's perspective, the trip took 1.9 years. This really confused me initially, because that means that the rocket would be moving faster than light. But I thought about it more, and I think that this is possible because the actual distance was contracted, so the rocket only really travelled maybe 2 light years from its own perspective.
Is this accurate? I'm just trying to wrap my head around this. I came to this conclusion because the problem is similar to atmospheric particles somehow making it to the earths surface in spite of their decay times.