Table of Contents
Can we travel to the nearest star?
It is traveling away from the Sun at a rate of 17.3 km/s. If Voyager were to travel to Proxima Centauri, at this rate, it would take over 73,000 years to arrive. If we could travel at the speed of light, an impossibility due to Special Relativity, it would still take 4.22 years to arrive!
Can we send a probe to Alpha Centauri?
It would take NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, which launched in 1977 and reached interstellar space in 2012, about 75,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri if the probe were headed in the right direction (which it is not). This problem becomes exponentially worse the larger a spacecraft gets.
Could we send a probe to Proxima B?
New Horizons was traveling at speeds that topped 52,000 mph, but even at that rate, it would take about 54,400 years to reach Proxima Centauri. There are indeed faster probes out there. Even at that rate, the probe would reach Proxima Centauri in about 17,160 years.
Do we have to wait a year for new space discoveries?
Thankfully, we don’t have to wait that long for new discoveries. Both probes are still making fascinating finds along the way. Only the Voyager probes have passed the heliopause, leaving the sun’s influence. New probes may one day study the interstellar medium lying beyond.
Should we go to the nearest star system to find life?
“Clearly it would be a huge step forward for humanity if we could reach out to the nearest star system,” says Bruce Betts, director of science and technology for the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California. The data beamed back could reveal whether the alien world offers the right conditions for life—and maybe even whether anything inhabits it.
Does Starshot have a realistic chance at interstellar travel?
And even astrophysicists who are not involved with Starshot agree that it has the most realistic chance at an interstellar mission in the next few decades, thanks in part to scientists who have published many concept papers on interstellar travel.
How powerful will the next Starshot be?
Starshot leaders acknowledge that they are counting on breakthroughs from the laser industry. One hundred gigawatts will be a million times more powerful than today’s biggest continuous lasers, which put out hundreds of kilowatts.