If you could travel at the speed of the light how long would it take to travel from our solar system to the nearest star?

Answer 1

It's 4.37 light years to Alpha Centauri.

Answer 2

Just like any other trip, it would have something to do with how fast you tavel.

We worked out the answers for a few different speeds. Here they are, in rounded

numbers.

(Note: If you make any stops along the way, then it would take longer, just like

any other trip.).

=> 30 miles per hour . . . . . 96,121,512 years

=> 60 miles per hour . . . . . 48,060,756 years

=> Speed of sound . . . . . 3,758,323 years

=> 1 million miles per hour . . . . . 2,883.6 years

=> Speed of light . . . . . 4years 3months 18days

Of course, that also depends on how long it takes you to reach those speeds; the faster you travel, the longer it takes you to get up to speed--instantaneous acceleration would be problematic. Hypothetically speaking, humans find much more than one gravity acceleration at minimum uncomfortable. To reach the speed of sound, an acceleration of 3-5 G's for the few seconds it would take to reach it is bearable. Much more than that and people start passing out, or at worst dying. (Humans are such fragile little things).

The other matter to consider is that if one were traveling to, perhaps, Proxima Centauri (Earth's nearest cosmic neighbor at 4.2 light years), you can accelerate for only half the distance if traveling at relativistic speeds (assuming you could even approach light speed); the second half of the trip you need to dump the kinetic energy you accumulated --

that is, you need to slow down.

So, say it took you 5 years to accelerate to your top speed, be that light speed or .9, or what ever, your deceleration time will also be 5 years and your trip will take ten years total. That distance by the way is 37,842,935,425,828 kilometers (or 23,514,509,944,271 miles for the metrically challenged). Yes, that is thirty-seven trillion, eight hundred forty-two billion, nine hundred thirty-five million, four hundred twenty-five thousand, eight hundred twenty-eight kilometers. (to put this into perspective, it takes most people in the US about a year of regular driving to put 10,000 miles (16,093.44 K) on their car's odometer.

For a bit more perspective, the current flight speed record for a terrestrial aircraft was set 1 September 1974 by the crew of a SR-71 Blackbird. Travelling at 80,000 feet average altitude for 3,461 miles at an average speed of 1,807 mph (they exceeded 2,000 mph for part of the trip), it took the crew 1 hour 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds.

Answer 3

It would take you 4.2 years because the nearest star is 4.2 light-years away.

A light-year is a measure of distance, the distance travelled by light in one year. For this definiton the year is taken as the Julian year of 365.25 days.

Answer 4

The nearest star, Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light-years from that of the Earth. So at the speed of light, it's 4.2 years. This distance is about 10,000 the distance of the Earth to the Sun. The star is thought to be orbiting that of the Alpha Centauri binary system.

Answer 5

The "nearest star" is of course our Sun. Apart from that, the nearest star is Proxima Centauri, at a distance of about 4.3 light-years. That means it takes light 4.3 years to travel this distance.

Answer 6

The nearest star to the Earth is the Sun and the Sun is about 8 light minutes away form the Earth, so it would take 8 minutes to get there travelling at the speed of light.

Answer 7

81/3 minutes to the sun, 4.2 years to the nearest star outside our solar system.

Answer 8

4.22 years to Proxima Centauri