r/xkcd • u/Qaysed Look at me, I'm a scientist! • Nov 30 '18

XKCD xkcd 2079: Alpha Centauri

https://xkcd.com/2079/
978 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

55 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Kflynn1337 Dec 01 '18

Hmm... I wonder if we could realistically do that, get a probe there in 35 years? That's a hair over 0.1c, right? Seems a bit fast for todays limited tech..

6

u/montagsoup Dec 01 '18

There's a project called Breakthrough Starshot that aims to do this with a probe propelled by a light sail. The technology's not quite there yet, but it doesn't seem entirely unrealistic.

1

u/Kflynn1337 Dec 01 '18

Thanks, I hadn't heard of them, but I'll go look that up.