Tom Ellis
Dec 6, 2023

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Do the math, please. Proxima Centauri is about 6 light years away. That means, in the wildly improbable assumption that any vehicle could reach the speed of light (without converting all its mass to energy), it would still take 6 years to get there. And since Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star, the “habitable zone” would be very close to the star itself, and thus be buffeted by constant high levels of radiation, blowing off any atmosphere and rendering it inhospitable to life forms. Any other star systems out there that could reach ours? Not likely!

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Tom Ellis
Tom Ellis

Written by Tom Ellis

I am a retired English professor now living in Oregon, and a life-long environmental activist, Buddhist, and holistic philosopher.

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