regular years...not light years. Alpha Centuri..the nearest presently ?
2006-12-28 14:15:45 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Seems a bit short. Alpha Centauri is 4.365 light years away:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_centauri
Earth's escape velocity is about 7mi/hr, so that results in 116,000 yrs to get to Alpha Centauri.
Solar sails supposedly might do better, but they have yet to be proven in actual space flight.
2006-12-28 15:47:13 · answer #1 · answered by arbiter007 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Actually with our present technology we will never reach another solar system. Sometime in the next 100 years or so maybe we will have the technology.
2006-12-28 22:25:54 · answer #2 · answered by xox_bass_player_xox 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's worse than that. If you used the Space Shuttle or an Apollo spacecraft, it would take 900,000 years. The Voyager spacecraft is unmanned and would take 80,000 years to get there. And, it has no engines to stop if it go there. (It is travelling in the wrong direction.)
2006-12-28 22:22:12 · answer #3 · answered by Otis F 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, I think
The fastest man-made object goes about 150,000 mph, the nearest star is is 25.8 trillion miles away.
That's 172,000,000 hours or
7,166,666 days or
19,634 years
Oops, I guess that's a no.
2006-12-28 22:20:17 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋