While boffins continue their work to prove that time travel is possible in outer space, it has actually already been achieved here on Earth.

That’s because there’s one place on our planet where you can walk forward and back a day – although it’s actually illegal to do so.

The weird feat is possible on the Diomede Islands – and what makes it even stranger is that the two ends of the journey are in sworn enemies Russia and the United States.

READ MORE: 'Time traveller' claims scientists will soon 'prove there is an afterlife'

The pair of islands in the Bering Strait are officially called Big Diomede, which is Russian, and Little Diomede, which is part of the US state of Alaska. At their closest points the two islands are less than 2.5 miles apart.

The islands are where timezones – and the US and Russia – meet
The islands are where timezones – and the US and Russia – meet

Science page Geeky Dude wrote on Facebook: “The Diomede Islands are just three miles apart but the bigger island is almost one day ahead of its smaller neighbour (21 hours) because they sit on either side of the International Date Line, which passes through the Pacific Ocean and marks the boundary between one calendar day and the next.”

Because of the presence of the International Date Line down the middle, they have the nicknames Yesterday Island and Tomorrow Island.

Big Diomede is almost a day ahead of Little Diomede, but not completely. Because of locally-defined time zones, Tomorrow Island is actually only 21 hours ahead of Yesterday Island.

The two islands are near neighbours but are nearly a day apart
The two islands are near neighbours but are nearly a day apart

Despite the huge time difference, during the winter the plummeting temperatures mean the ice between the two islands freezes.

“The ice bridge that forms between the two islands in winter makes it possible, although illegal, to walk the short distance between them and 'travel through time',” said Geeky Dude.

Big Diomede is the most easterly point in Russia, while on Little Diomede there is a small community who live in a little village called, somewhat unoriginally, Diomede.

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