Table of Contents
How long would it take to get to Alpha Centauri at 1\% the speed of light?
Alpha Centauri is about 4.4 light years away. Thus a probe traveling at 1\% light speed would take about 440 years to get there – well beyond a single humans lifespan. For this reason Breakthrough StarShot is shooting for 20\% light speed so we could reach Alpha Centauri in 22 years – a reasonable “human” time scale.
How long would it take to get to the Andromeda Galaxy?
2.5 million years
Although it may be one of the closest galaxies to our own, since the Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million light years distant it would take 2.5 million years to get there if (and it’s a huge ‘if’) we could travel at the speed of light.
How long would it take to travel to Centauri at half Lightspeed?
Alfa Centauri is only 4.367 light years away, so at half lightspeed they journey would be 2*4.367 years*c/ (0.5c) = 17.488 years – from the point of view of the earth. You would see the distance contracted to 3.782 light years, and thus the journey would only take you 15.13 years at 0.5c from your point of view.
Would it take 20 years to get to Alpha Centauri?
No it would NOT take 20 years to get there and back at 50\% because alpha Centauri is 4.367 light years (the distance light travels in 1 year) so it would take 8.734 years to get there and 8.734 years back so it would be 17.468 years and that’s in earth time for you which is traveling at 50\% light speed using this equation
How long would it take to travel to the speed of light?
For an answer in years, t=20, the time dilation factor (alpha) is approx 1.154, so the time on earth would be approx 23.08. Alpha rises VERY rapidly as you approach the speed of light. If you needed 20 years for the journey then you must’ve made some 2 and a half year stops along the way.
What is the time dilation formula for the Alpha Centauri system?
For interest, you may want to paste the time dilation formula below into Excel. It’s the standard time dilation formula and in this case should give a result of 1, but instead gives 0.999949999. =SQRT ( (1- ( (1*1)/ (100*100)))) Apart from the Sun the nearest stars to us form the Alpha Centauri system.