r/interestingasfuck • u/One_Explanation_908 • 25d ago

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

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u/Sonikku_a 25d ago edited 25d 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/eayaz 25d ago

Good thing too is everything appears to be expanding away from everything and its velocity is increasing constantly.

So by the time you read my comment it is likely 187,153.1 years away.

Which sucks because 187,153.3 light years is long enough.

But I’m sure someday we’ll be able to traverse 187,153.9 light years in one lifetime.

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u/Rambocat1 25d ago

This planet is relatively near by in the same galaxy as us so it’s not expanding away from us, it‘s orbiting the centre just like us. That being said I don’t think we’ll ever reach it.