Hypothetical" Let's say we find a way to send a satellite a decent percent of the speed of light, so that it could reach another star within a human lifetime, and beam back anything interesting it learns. A human going along is out of the question, since you'd need to build something much more massive to keep them alive for the trip, and a return trip isn't really practical, either. Which star are we going to visit?
Proxima Centauri is the closest at 4.22 light years, so we'd hear back the soonest, but it can't be the most interesting star within a reasonable distance. Gliese 876 we know to have at least three planets, and it's only about 15 light years away, so is that the obvious choice?
2007-10-11
04:05:37
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8 answers
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asked by
Eli
6
in
Astronomy & Space