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The IAC confirms the existence of a Super-earth in the habitable zone of a Sun-like Star (www.iac.es)

submitted 2 days ago by neme@lemm.ee to c/astronomy@mander.xyz

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[–] themoken@startrek.website 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In a certain way, it does feel close. We can't figure out how to go faster than light, but we could theoretically get to a significant fraction of c and 20 years isn't such a long time to plan for in terms of getting a probe there to start relaying messages that take 20 years to get back.

I mean, it's the span of a career, but people could conceivably work on the launch and live to see it return data.

[–] LordTrychon@startrek.website 2 points 1 day ago

Breakthrough Starshot project is working towards accelerating a probe close to 20% of C. That's a significant fraction of C in these terms.

Even if we could get to .25 C, that would be 80 years for the probe to get there, and then 20 more for the data to come back.

But yes, that is still VERY close.