Earth like planet 20 light years away?

Question

I saw an article today that said scientists have found out about an earth like planet 20.5 light years away. Does that mean we can get there in about 20 years to see if anyone lives there?

Thanks for the answers. I get it now and it makes sense of course we can't travel that fast. but why would be not be able to send some type of communication?

Answer 1

No, we can't get there in 20.5 years because that's how long it takes for light to get here from there, and we can not move through space at the speed of light. The best we can ever hope to attain is a velocity just below the speed of light, but even that would require a technology that we don't have at this time.

Answer 2

well I cant really think off a good name but I will say the chances of it being the new earth for humans in the future are pretty slim to none. Its so far away and unless we are advance enough to travel faster than the speed of light we will be spending a very long time on a space ship just getting there so the space ship would more likely be our new home. Also if the planet is suitable for life it has a very small habitable zone (for earthly humans at least) compared to earth since half the planet is to hot for humans and the other half is to cold with no light so the habitable zone would get pretty crowded after a few generations. Also if their is life their already there is a slim chance they could be more advance then us we may be unwelcome guest but hey this is all still speculation lol who knows.

Answer 3

Just because its supposably earth like doesn't mean theres life forms, even if there is its highly unlikely it would be intelligent enough to create such technologies. But if you want to dream and be more realistic at other life forms I'd put money on Europa having some sort of life form under neath its icy surface. Maybe not an intelligent life form but bacterial or simple ones like crustations or jellyfish. Also my theory would be look for a planet with a thick atmosphere like ours. We only look for planets with water because thats all we know where a lifeform can exist because thats all we have on earth. A planet where the tempeture doesn't change much from night and day. Even if its freezing on the planet it can still contain life, only because water freezes doesn't mean all life cannot exist, what we've learned is things evolve to their enviorment aslong as the change isn't radical enough to wipe it out it can survive and become a lifeform.

Answer 4

No. It only means light takes 20.5 years to get there. It would take the fastest space craft we can build today over 300,000 years to get there. And I agree with the above answer, that we are not sure at all it is really Earth like.

Answer 5

Not at all. That means is takes light 20.5 years to reach us. that is 300000 km/s. We can't come close to this speed yet. An upside however is that we could probably send communications at that speed so if there is intelligent life we may be able to comunicate after 20 years, but this also is very unlikely.

Answer 6

Now wait a second everyone. All that was said is that it's only 5 times the mass of the earth and that it's temperature should be earth like. for all we know, it might have a sulfuric acid atmosphere. Let's not jump to conclusions.

Answer 7

Not unless you can travel at the speed of light! But I totally believe that there is more life out there- do you really think all that endless space and time is just for our puny little planet? Puh-leeze!

Answer 8

We could get there in 20 years if we started right now and could travel at the speed of light.
But we can't go even 1% of that speed.
And we don't have a ship that could get us there.

So the answer is no.