But in what may prove to be the most exciting find to date, the German weekly Der Spiegel announced recently that astronomers have discovered an Earth like planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, just 4.25 light-years away. Yes, in what is an apparent trifecta, this newly-discovered exoplanet is Earth-like, orbits within it’s sun’s habitable zone, and is within our reach. But is this too good to be true?
Yes it is too good tone true!
At present speeds it would take hundreds of years to get there............
If we can reach them they can reach us. They are probably here. Anyways if there is an earth like planet next door how many are there in reality? Maybe more than they think.
Got spaceship go claim it. :)
But in what may prove to be the most exciting find to date, the German weekly Der Spiegel announced recently that astronomers have discovered an Earth like planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, just 4.25 light-years away.
...
Venus and Mars are closer.
“... just 4.25 light-years away ...”
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It would only take 80,000 years to get there!
We’ve been finding exo-planets billions of light-years away and it is only now we find one around Centauri?
Amazing isn’t it? And all these planets are right in our face so to speak. I’m confident the galaxy is jammed with them.
If it took our spaceship “Juno” 5 years to reach Jupiter’s orbit, how many years will it take for man made space ships to transverse 4.25 light years?
Distance from earth of Jupiter = 582 million miles
Distance from earth of Proxima Centauri =
186,000 X 60 X 24 X 365 X 4.25 = 186,000 X 2233800
= 415,486 million miles
Therefore time required for our spaceship to reach Proxima Centauri = 5 X (415,486 / 582) = 3570 years!
Assuming each new human generation requires 20-25 years,
to reach Proxima Centauri will require
3570/25 = 143 generations to be reproduced and kept alive in a spaceship!
Beam me over. I’m ready after all the CR@P that’s happening in this screwed up world.
“But is this too good to be true?”
What’s so good abut it?
4.25 light-years away is a long way. "...unless we make a major breakthrough in the realms of fusion, antimatter, or laser technology, we will either have to be content with exploring our own Solar System, or be forced to accept a very long-term transit strategy…" http://www.universetoday.com/15403/how-long-would-it-take-to-travel-to-the-nearest-star/
I either read about this or watched it on an earthly station just recently! It is so exciting! I want to go to the one in Red Dwarf. You never know, we might find a cat.
Thank you for posting this thread! It really is exciting!