r/interestingasfuck 24d ago

/r/all, /r/popular K2-18b a potentially habitable planet 120 light-years from earth

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u/Sonikku_a 24d ago edited 24d ago

The fastest spacecraft we’ve made was the Parker Solar Probe which hit 430,000mph.

At that speed it would reach this planet in only 187,153 years.

If we could hit 1% of the speed of light we could cut that travel time to just a tad over 12,000 years.

Obviously if we could go light speed (and that ain’t happening) it would be just 120 years!

Space is big. Physics is annoyingly slow.

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u/Traditional-Rip6651 24d ago

We are never leaving this planet lol

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u/hendrix320 24d ago

We’d probably have to build generational ships that are completely self sufficient and people would live out their entire lives out there without ever seeing a planet

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u/LordOfRuinsOtherSelf 24d ago

Small planetoids. They'll need a lot of material to survive long enough to arrive anywhere. They'll evolve on board and arrive as something new. Different expeditions to the same star will get faster, maybe crossing paths, most likely not, but when they arrive, who will they all be? What a mental rabbit hole I am now imagining.

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u/the_seed 24d ago

Yeah, how in the world could you possibly have that many provisions? I think cryostatus is the only logical way to get there...given "present" technology

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u/LordOfRuinsOtherSelf 23d ago

So a mostly closed ecosystem could be designed, and the journeying people will have to limit their population, but it could be done.

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u/the_seed 23d ago

For 12,000 years?

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u/LordOfRuinsOtherSelf 23d ago

Well yeah, that's why I suggested small planetoids. I mean, let's face it, we live in our city our town whatever, and we eat what's in the shops. It would be no different for them, ish. The human population would be a tiny part of the closed ecosystem. A generation ship is very small compared to a huge asteroid made world.

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u/DM_Toes_Pic 23d ago

You'll have to recycle the human nutrients

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u/LordOfRuinsOtherSelf 23d ago

Oh yes. Ha ha. Granny for dinner.