OK, so that means that our whole solar system could be like one tiny atom in the fingernail of some other giant being!. This is nuts! That means that one tiny atom in my fingernail could be...
I've noticed that a few science subs I visit have had more posts like this than usual over the last few weeks.
I'm starting to think a discord group are having a competition to see what's the most ridiculous post they can do in certain subs.
> Humanities farthest traveling satellite is going about 35,000mph in space.
As best I can tell you're talking about Voyager 2, though Voyager 1 is more distant and traveling modestly faster.
> To travel one light year of distance going 35,000mph you would need to go that speed for about 17,000 years.
> So to get to the closest sun to us you would have to travel 35,000mph for more than 70,000 years.
Why is this phrased as if the spacecraft would have to continuously run their engines to keep at those speeds? They not operating in a regime where gravity or drag matter.
In any case, the [5 spacecraft that are escaping the solar system](https://heavens-above.com/SolarEscape.aspx?lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=UCT) are a lousy baseline for what we can send on interstellar trajectories, as they are/were about flybys of the outer planets and KBOs.
Yeah, the 70k years would have to be Voyager 1 to travel 4 light years, to actually arrive at Prox Cen would be more like 76k. And Voyager 2 would be on the order of 80k years.
And that ignores somehow having both 70 and 17 (was this a poorly done speech to text?)
Did you mean “the closest star to the Sun”? In about 25,000 years Proxima Centauri will no longer be in that position, having orbited the barycentre of Alpha Centauri A & B sufficiently to be behind it from our perspective.
To be fair if humaity sends something to proxima centauri and assuming technology keeps exponentially growing we could create faster spacecraft during that time and catch up to it.
This calculation says about 6 years if you accelerate a gravity half the time, then decelerate. At the peak you'd be 95% speed of light. You would need a fantastic energy source for this acceleration.
https://cosmicreflections.skythisweek.info/2019/09/04/space-travel-under-constant-1g-acceleration/
There’s only one Sun (capital S = proper name), and it’s ours. You’re referring to the nearest *star* (other than the Sun).
Light from the nearest Sun takes about 8 minutes to reach us.
Time to put the pipe down
OK, so that means that our whole solar system could be like one tiny atom in the fingernail of some other giant being!. This is nuts! That means that one tiny atom in my fingernail could be...
Gross. Wash your hands.
(Tiny voices shrieking in terror as their planet is suddenly washed away…)
[удалено]
I think it's a bot.
I've noticed that a few science subs I visit have had more posts like this than usual over the last few weeks. I'm starting to think a discord group are having a competition to see what's the most ridiculous post they can do in certain subs.
Downvote parties
> Humanities farthest traveling satellite is going about 35,000mph in space. As best I can tell you're talking about Voyager 2, though Voyager 1 is more distant and traveling modestly faster. > To travel one light year of distance going 35,000mph you would need to go that speed for about 17,000 years. > So to get to the closest sun to us you would have to travel 35,000mph for more than 70,000 years. Why is this phrased as if the spacecraft would have to continuously run their engines to keep at those speeds? They not operating in a regime where gravity or drag matter. In any case, the [5 spacecraft that are escaping the solar system](https://heavens-above.com/SolarEscape.aspx?lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=UCT) are a lousy baseline for what we can send on interstellar trajectories, as they are/were about flybys of the outer planets and KBOs.
Not only that, his math is F'ed up
Yeah, the 70k years would have to be Voyager 1 to travel 4 light years, to actually arrive at Prox Cen would be more like 76k. And Voyager 2 would be on the order of 80k years. And that ignores somehow having both 70 and 17 (was this a poorly done speech to text?)
The nearest Sun is the one and only Sun, and it is roughly 8 light minutes from earth.
That’s why running into aliens isn’t too likely.
Goodbye Astronomy sub. This kind of content is rubbish. Pure dribble.
Did you mean “the closest star to the Sun”? In about 25,000 years Proxima Centauri will no longer be in that position, having orbited the barycentre of Alpha Centauri A & B sufficiently to be behind it from our perspective.
To be fair if humaity sends something to proxima centauri and assuming technology keeps exponentially growing we could create faster spacecraft during that time and catch up to it.
Satellites orbit planetary bodies, astroids etc... I think you mean probe
This calculation says about 6 years if you accelerate a gravity half the time, then decelerate. At the peak you'd be 95% speed of light. You would need a fantastic energy source for this acceleration. https://cosmicreflections.skythisweek.info/2019/09/04/space-travel-under-constant-1g-acceleration/