We Could Visit The Nearest Exoplanet In 20 Years
Breakthrough StarShot: Our first attempt to venture to an alien exoplanet.
There are trillions of exoplanets in the Galaxy. These distant worlds hold endless possibilities, but they are currently hidden from us. At best, we can hope for a glimpse of a silhouette, or a brief peek at the thin halo of an atmosphere. These worlds are too distant for us to visit, forever remaining out of reach. Or are they? A recent project aims to get close and personal with our nearest star system and its exoplanet in just 20 years. How are they able to pull this off? And what alien world will they be encountering?
Most exoplanets lie hundreds or thousands of light-years away. Sadly, these worlds will forever remain distant to us. But we are fortunate, our nearest cosmic neighbour, Proxima Centauri, is only 4.2 light-years away, and it has an Earth-like exoplanet called Proxima b.
4.2 light-years is still an awfully long way! The fastest man-made object is the Parker Solar Probe, travelling at 430,000 mph, this is over 780 times faster than a commercial jet! But even at this speed it would still take over 6,500…
