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http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/feature-astronomers-say-neptune-sized-planet-lurks-unseen-solar-system
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
I suppose the reason this one is note worthy is that it's an entire system - it's not just "kepler has found 500 planets while scanning 50,000 stars for a year" or whatever, it's the idea that this is an entire system of planets around a star with a number of planets orbiting in the zone where there would be sufficient energy for the complex chemical reactions that could lead to life. That's cool.
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
Accelerating to near light speed would not be impossible given something like a big enough solar sail. The significant problems would be collision avoidance, radiation protection and energy provision for the travellers.
Is it likely? Well, that depends on the timescale.
Adam
The speed of the solar wind, according to google, is around 400km/s. Which is fast, but light speed is 300,000km/s. So a solar sail probably wouldn't cut it.
Yes, due to relativity, if you could get to nearly the speed of light time would move more slowly for you with reference to the rest of the universe. So you could get there after a few millennia and feel like only a few decades had passed, if you went fast enough.
However, my understanding is that as you approach the speed of light, your extra kinetic energy effectively becomes extra weight so each extra meter per second gets progressively harder to get to.
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
Adam
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
You have to engage the flux capacitor.
Trading feedback: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/72424/
I don't think that works with solar "wind". It works with boats because you're in a dense liquid and can use the water's reaction against your hull, keel and rudder to maintain direction.
But - correct me if I'm wrong - I don't think a solar sail wouldn't allow tacking and other tricks of seamen.
(Huh - he said "Seamen".)
They use photon momentum to impart a thrust to an object, and whilst a useful analogy is that of a sailing boat in wind it doesn't tell the whole story.
In a nutshell, I think, imagine each photon that hits the sail exerts an amount of thrust. As far as the sail is concerned, each photon will be hitting it at the same speed relative to the sail no matter what speed the sail is moving (see Einstein and relativity). Therefore the thrust gained from the solar wind (photon 'pressure') is independent of the speed of the object being moved - it doesn't act like a medium (like wind on a boats' sail) but more like a force (e.g gravity).
Adam
Have a play with this.
In a hard vacume, Crookes Radiometer does not work. The force of photons pushing against vanes cannot be detected.
The idea that photons can push and reflect off a solar sail is a violation of conservation of energy because the photons are also imparting energy on the sail since they are doing work. The photons and the sail can't both gain energy. If you consider the doppler effect, the frequency of the reflected light will be shifted down. That is, the photons will have less energy. This difference equals the amount of energy transferred to the sail. Therefore, the sail will not move.
Nice idea though....
Adam
Even if you could travel at the speed of light you wouldn't be able to navigate anywhere as your essentially travelling as fast as any navigational device can set your course ... As soon an obstacle was detected you would hit it Space isn't empty it has loads of micro meteorites and other hazards
Generation ships are the only way forward .... You set sail as a young man and its your great grand kids that get to colonise somewhere . Even then you would have to travel at 1/50th of the speed of light for 200 years to reach alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to us ...
Its sad but I doubt we will ever get beyond the solar system before we've used all the available resources and fuel on this planet.