Anything with mass cannot travel the speed of light, because if an object were to reach the speed of light its momentum is infinite and with the momentum at infinity you need an infinite force to accelerate the object.
Anything with mass cannot travel the speed of light, because if an object were to reach the speed of light its momentum is infinite and with the momentum at infinity you need an infinite force to accelerate the object.
The fact that almost as soon as we have built a telescope capable of detecting small, earth-like worlds, one turns up right on our cosmic doorstep, shows that statistically, there are probably billions of earths out there.
Makes you wish people lived to the age of a 800 instead of 80.
now if we could only find a way to travel the spped of ligh I could get there in 20 years....not that bad actually
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Originally Posted by -primetime-
nope...if it takes 20 years to get there going the speed of light then it would take 40 years to get there going half the speed...simple math
A star being 20 light years away does not mean if you traveled (in a space craft) at the speed of light that it would take you 20 years to get there, nor would it take you 40 years traveling half the speed of light.
As was already mentioned it's impossible to travel at the speed of light. But lets, for examples sake, say you were traveling in a space ship to a star 20 light years away at 99% the speed of light or 0.99c. Then it would only take you approximately 2.8 years to get there. However to an observer on earth, the trip would take about 20 years.
Similarly if you were traveling at half the speed of light or 0.5c then it would take you approximately 36.4 years to complete the trip, but to an observer on earth, it would take 40 years.
Seem strange? Welcome to the marvels of Special Relativity known as length contraction and time dilation.
A star being 20 light years away does not mean if you traveled (in a space craft) at the speed of light that it would take you 20 years to get there, nor would it take you 40 years traveling half the speed of light.
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why is everyone over complicating this...
the star is 20 light years away
that means it takes light 20 years to reach the star
if a ship went the speed of light it would take the same 20 years
if a ship went half the speed of light it would take half the time
A star being 20 light years away does not mean if you traveled (in a space craft) at the speed of light that it would take you 20 years to get there, nor would it take you 40 years traveling half the speed of light.
As was already mentioned it's impossible to travel at the speed of light. But lets, for examples sake, say you were traveling in a space ship to a star 20 light years away at 99% the speed of light or 0.99c. Then it would only take you approximately 2.8 years to get there. However to an observer on earth, the trip would take about 20 years.
Similarly if you were traveling at half the speed of light or 0.5c then it would take you approximately 36.4 years to complete the trip, but to an observer on earth, it would take 40 years.
Seem strange? Welcome to the marvels of Special Relativity known as length contraction and time dilation.
I have to just give you props for this. Awesome explanation.
Re: another planet like earth found
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