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85 Comments
- AnthonyFTMFW, on 10/29/2008, -0/+14Looks like another adventure for....
....the Intrepid SPACEMAN SPIFF!! - MeatyVitamin, on 10/29/2008, -0/+13Dugg for unnecessary Halo accuracy.
- arden21, on 10/28/2008, -1/+13"only 10.5 light years" sounds fun
- Hrodrik, on 10/29/2008, -1/+11Just...
- sanman, on 10/29/2008, -1/+11it was close enough for the Covenant
Epsilon Eridani is also where the planet Reach is located. That's where Halo's MasterChief was trained, before it fell to the enemy - GeorgeCostanza, on 10/29/2008, -0/+9Dugg for Calvin and Hobbes reference.
- kipmartin, on 10/29/2008, -1/+9Undiscovered planets might be 50 feet away. Some planets might be SO DIFFERENT they cant be seen, and hence, 'undiscovered'. Just saying...
Pass the bong this way again? - inactive, on 10/29/2008, -0/+8It's real of course.
- fwoofles, on 10/29/2008, -0/+7Who knew Reach was in a system that actually exists.
- blobrana, on 10/28/2008, -1/+8Hum,
Sadly now, the `dailymail` is only `the echo`. - jayemee, on 10/29/2008, -0/+6But if it's at the edge of our own system, it's not going to be Earth-like.
- fattony89, on 10/29/2008, -0/+610.5 light years is still quite a long return trip even at the speed of light.
- sockpuppets, on 10/29/2008, -1/+7Surprisingly it's about 10.5 light years back, too.
- yohojones, on 10/29/2008, -1/+7Not just feel... You'd actually age less. Time moves at a slower pace. But...
People forget how fast the speed of light is... 299 792 458 m / s and gravity on earth is 9.8 m/s/s. So if you accelerate at 9.8 meters per second per second thats 1g. So assume rest state on earth... 299792458/9.8 is 30591067 seconds. Or 354 days. Almost a year at normal earth gravity accelerating just to reach light speed.
Then traveling at that speed for 10.5 years - the distance traveled while you were approaching light speed.
N/m that relativity says that any mass approaching the speed of light will be crushed by it's own gravity...
We're talking about almost uncomprehensible distances here.
Wait i gotta move this post to a slashdot forum... - suprxtragrav, on 12/09/2008, -0/+6actually due to time dilation, for us spectating from earth, the trip would appear to take 10.5 years each way (assuming the space ship is capable of travelling at light speed). However if you were actually on board the ship, it would feel significantly shorter.
*the more you know* - stuffradio, on 10/29/2008, -0/+6Dugg for digging a Calvin and Hobbes reference.
- linksus, on 10/29/2008, -0/+5I wish they would hurry up and either create Stargates, or the warp drive.
- inactive, on 10/29/2008, -0/+5That information was so useless and unexpected I just had to digg you up.
- doublefelix, on 10/29/2008, -0/+5plus or minus another 20 years for acceleration, deceleration and bathroom stops
- inactive, on 10/29/2008, -0/+5I can understand wanting to see a man on mars... but nonsense? please rephrase before i'm forced to kick you in your cyber nuts.
- BigManOnCampus, on 10/28/2008, -2/+6If you want to get technical, undiscovered planets could be less than a light week away. Ironically we don't have telescopes powerful enough to find a dim planet at the edge of our own system. I would imagine we would find far-out planets by radar before we find it optically.
- TheRealJMX, on 10/29/2008, -0/+4Okay ignore me. Yeah, uhh excuse me for posting before READING THE ARTICLE.
- zeebo, on 10/29/2008, -0/+4Anybody who has paid attention. Epsilon Eridani has shown up constantly in science fiction because it is a nearby star that is similar to the sun, and was expected to have (and which is now known to have) planets.
- JohnFlux, on 10/29/2008, -0/+4> N/m that relativity says that any mass approaching the speed of light will be crushed by it's own gravity...
Woah, woah, no it does not. Speed is relative. If I travel at close to the speed of light away from you, it's just as valid to say that you are travelling at close to the speed of light away from me. Neither of us is wrong. So it's clearly wrong that one of us will be crushed by our own gravity. - Jimbozu, on 10/29/2008, -1/+5They should definitely name one of those planets reach
- JohnFlux, on 10/29/2008, -0/+4I can't believe I'm being dugg down. I'm a theoretical particle physicist *sigh*.
This is basic special relativity. For someone on earth, it would take the rocket a _minimum_ of 21 years to travel that 10.5 light years and back again. However for the person in the rocket, it could be done in a day, if you travelled fast enough. This is because time slows down for a moving clock.
With Project Orion accelerating at g for half the journey and -g for the other half, you would get a lot further than the nearest star in 50 years! It would only take 28 years to travel to our nearest neighbouring galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy 2,000,000 light years away.
This is from the point of view from the people in the spaceship. For people on earth, it would take 4,000,000 years for the rocket to return. - ZincSaucier, on 10/29/2008, -1/+5relevant problems? you mean like how our planet is running out of natural resources and we may need to find a new one during the next couple thousand years?
- kipmartin, on 10/29/2008, -0/+4there are generic solar systems and then there is our specific star system, the Solar System.
the writer was correct according to OED and several journalistic style guides. take it up with the lexicographers if that doesnt help. - doublefelix, on 10/29/2008, -0/+3You wouldn't happen to know a cat named Orion?
- AltF3, on 10/29/2008, -1/+4Just need to get started on that warp drive... now where did we leave those blueprints
- Devine122, on 10/29/2008, -0/+3Does this mean that Star Trek is real or fake?
- JohnFlux, on 10/29/2008, -1/+4I did that actual calculation. If you accelerate at 9.8m/s^2 for half the journey and -9.8m/s^2 for the second half of the journey (so that it's just like earth's gravity) then you would arrive at the planet after:
1.94 arccosh(n/1.94 + 1) years
For n=10.5 light years, this gives 4.9 years.
For other values of distance:
4.3 ly nearest star 3.6 years
27 ly Vega 6.6 years
30,000 ly Center of our galaxy 20 years
2,000,000 ly Andromeda galaxy 28 years
(For distances bigger than about a thousand million light years, the formulas given here is inadequate because the universe is expanding. General Relativity would have to be used to work out those cases.)
So for someone in the rocket, they could arrive at the planet in 4.9 years.
If you had an 100% efficient engine, the fuel required would be:
d Stopping at: M
4.3 ly Nearest star 38 kg
27 ly Vega 886 kg
30,000 ly Center of our galaxy 955,000 tonnes
2,000,000 ly Andromeda galaxy 4.2 thousand million tonnes - expert01, on 10/29/2008, -0/+3Neither, because Vulcan is in 40 Eridani, no Epsilon Eridani (article is WRONG!!!)
- kipmartin, on 10/29/2008, -0/+3no, Vulcan is just outside Akron OH.
- Ursapater, on 10/29/2008, -0/+3but would you have powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men?
- inactive, on 10/29/2008, -1/+4er... 5 years for a 10.5 light year trip? am I missing something?
- hfactor, on 10/29/2008, -2/+5And how do you go faster than light?
- pcnerd37, on 10/29/2008, -1/+3I would say that I would gladly be the first person to travel to such a planet, but I dont know if I could do without the internet. 10.5 years of lag would be killer in a game of Counterstrike.
- trsully, on 10/29/2008, -0/+2Article says it is the nearest star system at 10.5 light years. Thats wrong, Alpha Centauri is the nearest at 4.37 light years.
- TomOwens, on 10/29/2008, -0/+2I have to admit that my first thought was "So, there are Vulcans out there?"
- JohnFlux, on 10/29/2008, -0/+2For those not convinced that you can do a longer journey in little time:
View: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_paradox
This shows how time would slow down for someone in a rocket. It gives the example of a journey of 10.28 light years that is completed with the occupents of the rocket only aging 5.14 years, by travelling at 86% the speed of light. - InTheBurbs, on 10/29/2008, -0/+2Of course there's planets there. There's also Babylon 5, the great machine...
- inactive, on 10/29/2008, -0/+2Get the ***** off of digg and take the retarded political section with you please.
- inactive, on 10/30/2008, -0/+1"For people on earth, it would take 4,000,000 years for the rocket to return."
Therein lies the problem. - eibborjames, on 10/29/2008, -1/+2Your not missing anything, there f'n morons.
- inactive, on 10/30/2008, -0/+1It's not that I was saying you were wrong or anything... I just didn't really understand(and still don't). Thanks for the info.
- JohnFlux, on 10/30/2008, -0/+11timeuser, no problem.
Basically the distance to the star shrinks as you approach the speed of light. The formula is (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Length_contraction )
L_rocket = L * sqrt(1-v^2/c^2)
So say you travelled at 99.99% the speed of light to a star that was 4 light years away. The distance according to the people in the rocket would actually be:
4 * sqrt(1 - 0.9999^2) = 0.05 light years.
So the distance has become signficantly shorter. Travelling at 99.99% the speed of light, it would take just
(0.05 light years) / (0.9999 * the speed of light) = 18.2621099 days
So for the people in the rocket, they would arrive in just 18 days! - Andreeew, on 10/29/2008, -0/+1Hopefully the orbital MAC platforms hold.
- mmx2000, on 10/29/2008, -0/+1Dugg for the Eridani Light Horse
- JohnFlux, on 10/30/2008, -0/+1(bah - why doesn't digg let you delete posts?)
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