2006-10-15 07:37:05 · 2 answers · asked by Shannon B 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
It took the took the Cassini-Huygens probe seven years, three months to reach Titan. This is traveling about as fast as current spacecraft can go. Of course, probes such as these don't travel directly but use the gravity of other celestial bodies (such as Earth and Jupiter) to "sling shot" it's way through the Solar system. To compound the problem, Titan's position relative to ours is not constant as it orbits Saturn; which in turn orbits the sun independently of our own Solar orbit. Hypothetically, if one could travel at the speed of light (a physical impossibility), one could reach the Earth from Titan in approx. 68 to 84 minutes.
2006-10-15 11:26:30 · answer #1 · answered by Jonathan G 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course that depends on how fast you travel. The New Horizon's space craft, currently en route to Pluto, will be (or is, I'm not sure) traveling at 47,000 miles per hour (21 km/s). At its closest, Saturn and Titan are about 1300 million kilometers from Earth. Traveling at 21 km/s, it would take 62 million seconds, or about 2 years to get there.
2006-10-15 08:21:12 · answer #2 · answered by kris 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋