Since the system is just 12 light-years away, let’s go on a road trip!
Speed of light, 186,000 miles per second
60 seconds in a minute
3,600 seconds in an hour
86,400 seconds in a day
31,536,000 seconds in a year
378,432,000 seconds in 12 years
70,388,352,000,000 miles away
These numbers are big, let’s make a little more sense out of this.
If I was driving a car at 60 miles an hour, it would take 1,173,139,200,000 years to get there.
That’s one trillion+ years. It’s really hard to wrap your brain around this! And our government throws out budget numbers like this only bigger. Insanity.
Who’s bringing the snacks? I wonder if there’s a Waffle?House on the way....
How long with existing technology would it take to travel 12 light-years away from earth:
Based on the search results, we can estimate the time it would take to travel 12 light-years away from Earth using existing technology.
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Voyager 1, the fastest human-made object, has a speed of 17.26 km/s. To calculate the time it would take to travel 12 light-years at this speed:
Convert light-years to kilometers: 12 light-years × 9.461 × 10^12 km/light-year ≈ 1.13 × 10^14 km
Calculate the time: time = distance / speed ≈ 1.13 × 10^14 km / 17.26 km/s ≈ 65,300 years
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The Parker Solar Probe, a spacecraft designed for solar exploration, has a top speed of approximately 192 km/s (0.045c). To calculate the time it would take to travel 12 light-years at this speed:
Convert light-years to kilometers: 12 light-years × 9.461 × 10^12 km/light-year ≈ 1.13 × 10^14 km Calculate the time: time = distance / speed ≈ 1.13 × 10^14 km / 192 km/s ≈ 5,900 years
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Another estimate based on the fastest spacecraft ever built (Solar Probe Plus) with a speed of 724,000 km/h (0.002c) would take approximately 59,627 years to travel 40 light-years (not 12, but provides an upper bound).
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A general estimate from brainly.com and other sources suggests that with current technology, it would take approximately 1,547 years to travel 1 light-year. Scaling this up to 12 light-years:
Time = 12 × 1,547 years ≈ 18,564 years
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Conclusion
Based on existing technology, the estimated time it would take to travel 12 light-years away from Earth varies between approximately 5,900 years (Parker Solar Probe-like speed) and 65,300 years (Voyager 1-like speed). A more general estimate based on current technology suggests it would take around 18,564 years to travel 12 light-years.
These calculations highlight the significant challenges and limitations of interstellar travel with our current technology.
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Unless time really slows for human life in space, it would take a lot of slowing of that process down for any human to arrive alive with our current technology.
That's why I do not believe we are being visited by aliens from other planets. p> At best it may be heavenly spirits, is my thinking. 🙂👍
Right now I would say demons more often than heavenly spirits. 🙁
I’m not sure what your comments mean. The article is regarding what JWST has seen/discovered, not traveling to these places.
It’s like cancer ...We’ve been trying to cure cancer for 200+ years yet there is NO cure for ANY cancer. Zero zip. I would guess the odds of curing ALL cancers within the next 200 years are still zero. But I think we should keep looking to see what we can learn.
“I wonder if there’s a Waffle House on the way’’.
Who knows but make sure everyone goes to the bathroom before you leave.