Earth-Sized, Habitable-Zone World Only 5,000 Years Away

Feel like visiting Kepler 186f,  the new planet the Kepler Space Telescope Scientists recently found?

Pack a lunch. It’s 500 light-years away.

Even at 10 percent the speed of light, low-balling the theoretical velocity scientists appear to think is achievable with a drive using a plasma – vaporized stream of pellet-sails proposed by Dana Andrews (discussed by Centauri Dreams and proposed for use by at Project Icarus – thanks to boingboing.net for pointing me to it) , the trip would take 5,000 years.

By way of comparison, the closest star, Alpha Centauri, is just 4 light years away, but there’s no evidence of Earth-like worlds orbiting there. If you were interested in going there for the sake of the ride, though, it would only take 40 years at 10 percent of the speed of light, C.

A recent article about the discovery at io9.com is more interesting in that it outlines the reason we’re finding all these recent rocky habitable-zone planets around dimmer, cooler stars – the light is better there, so to speak:

1) It’s easier to see them because they  stand out against the dimmer stars more when they pass across them in our line of vision.

2) Planets orbiting smaller, cooler stars tend to have smaller orbits, so they pass in front of our line of vision more frequently than planets would around a more Sol – like star.

It suggests there are more Earth-like worlds out there that could have life we might recognize – we’ll just have to spend more time looking for the ones around bright stars like our own: They’re harder to spot, and we get fewer chances at seeing them.

Maybe there’s a closer Earth analog waiting to be discovered. Something slightly farther away than Alpha Centauri, say in the 10-light year distance, would take about 95 years to get to with that drive if it only got you to 10 percent C. Some estimates of the drive’s top velocity indicate you could get up to 20 – 30 percent C, where you’re talking a 48 year trip and 33 year trip, respectively.

Here’s hoping the optimistic estimates of propulsion pan out and coincide with a discovery close enough to make the trip practical, at least from the perspective of duration.