Re: [PLUG] "Nearby"

["Rich Mingin (PLUG)" <plug@frags.us>]

You have to think in astronomical scales. Sure, 40ly means you can't walk there, or drive there in your car, but we can reach a planet that's 40ly away within a few generations with current technology and zero breakthroughs, if we really wanted to do it. Something like the Orion rocket could do it quite easily, though costs are high.

40ly is far, yes, but space is astoundingly big. We are looking at things which would be millions of years to reach, even with MULTIPLE massive breakthroughs in space travel. We routinely observe exoplanets around stars that are hundreds of ly away. 40ly is the neighborhood, and 4.25ly to Proxima Centauri is nothing.

On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 3:11 PM, Walt Mankowski <waltman@pobox.com> wrote:

Sure, given current technology we're not going to get there anytime
soon, but on the scale of the universe, it's practically next door.

On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 07:35:17PM +0000, Joe Rosato wrote:
> 40 light years = Nearby
> Really?
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/22/world/new-exoplanets-discovery-nasa/
>
> Joe
> --
> Joe

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