Story of my Search

Space, is the final frontier. But given our current technological state, it might stay that way[t1]  for some time. Unlike climbing the next mountain or sailing the next sea, exploring the next planet, let alone the next star system, will surely take humanity quite a while. The warp drives and wormholes of science fiction make for interesting stories, but in the real world the immensity of space appears unconquerable.

But does it have to be that way? It's easy to shrug off the convenient but impossible propulsion systems of fictional starships, but let's not be too quick to discount our real achievements. In just over 100 years, our species has learned how to fly, how to launch into space, and how to begin working and living there. If we put our minds to it, if humanity prioritizes interstellar travel above all else, what would it take for us to reach Proxima Centauri, the closest star system outside our own?

I am very interested in physics, and astronomy is part of it. So I came up with my research question: What are the characteristics of Proxima Centauri and is there a possibility getting there? And with some hard research I found an answer: Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star, 4.33 light years from the Solar System. If we were able to travel to Proxima Centauri using modern technology and materials, then we might be able to mount a manned expedition to Proxima lasting a little under a century.

I researched for two weeks researching about Proxima Centauri I choose this topic because I was recently reading a physics book written by Walter Lewin (physics teacher of MIT). He mentioned this particular star and got my attention so I began searching about it on EBSCO (school´s library subscription service) and saw an article that talked about traveling there and discovering the possibility of having a place that might be able to sustain human life.

I also used as well NASA webpage which mentioned the nearest technology that we have to travel to Proxima Centauri which is a space craft named Voyager I. If Voyager were to travel to Proxima Centauri, it would take over 73,000 years to arrive. If we could travel at the speed of light, impossibility due to Special Relativity, it would still take 4.22 years to arrive!

                 Throughout my research my interest changed from searching just the description of Proxima Centauri to the possibility of traveling to it and finding a possible place of living. "It's so close to us, and the position of the other stars is such that it should be very possible to find a small planet,” affirmed NASA (“Cosmic Distance Scales - The Nearest Star”)

The Results of My Research

Proxima Centauri was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes, the Director of the Union Observatory in Johannesburg, South Africa, the star was observed to have the same proper motion as Alpha Centauri (Carl). Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our own, is still 39,900,000,000,000 km away (“Cosmic Distance Scales - The Nearest Star”). Is smaller than our Sun with a mass of approximately 0.123 solar masses and a radius of only about 0.145 solar radii. Its interior is believed to be totally dependent on convection when it comes to transferring heat from the core to the exterior. Proxima Centauri’s flares are believed to be caused by magnetic activity. When a flare occurs, the brightness of all electromagnetic waves emitted by the star increases. This includes radio waves as well as harmful X-rays. [t2] The most common flare stars are red dwarfs, just like Proxima Centauri (Carl). Also to know a little bit more about Proxima Centauri it is important to know that stars are not actually stationary objects! The Galaxy is rotating, and the stars are in orbit around its center. Not every star moves at the same rate - how fast they orbit can depend on where the star is located within the Galaxy. Our Sun, being fairly far from the Galactic Center, takes over 200 million years to circle the Galaxy once. Some of the stars near us are moving faster than us, and some slower. As Phil Plaitt, from Bad Astronomy says, "...like cars on a highway, stars continually pass each other as they orbit the Galaxy. They change positions, slowly, but measurably" (“Cosmic Distance Scales - The Nearest Star”).

                    The search for another planet like our own has led astronomers to probe solar systems hundreds of light-years from our own. One group of scientists, though, is hoping to find an Earthlike planet in our own backyard. Guedes headed up a NASA-funded project to analyze the possibility of detecting an Earthlike planet in orbit around Alpha Centauri B, and their findings were positive. "It's so close to us, and the position of the other stars is such that it should be very possible to find a small planet,” affirmed NASA (Rodriguez).

Currently, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is the farthest man-made object, an achievement earned from nearly 35 years of constant movement. Assuming Voyager was headed straight for the system, it'd take about 76,000 years to arrive. For context, that's longer than any known civilization has stood and almost half as long as homo sapiens have been around. And that's just to the nearest star! It has no known planets, and even if it did, their habitability would be questionable at best because of Proxima Centauri's dimness and other unfavorable characteristics. The nearest known "interesting" stars, with possibly Earth-like planets in orbit, are many times farther away. But Proxima's proximity to us still makes it a useful destination: It's far enough away to require a new mindset for space travel, but still close enough to be conceivably reachable.

"To fly to Alpha Centauri in a shuttle in 100 years would require fuel tanks 55 times larger than the mass of the observable universe," says Andreas Tziolas of the University of Alaska Anchorage, and also a vice president at Icarus Interstellar, a nonprofit research organization aiming to create a realistic unmanned interstellar probe. "For a reaction engine, which carries its fuel, heats it up, and expels it for propulsion; we would want to use something with very high energy density." While we've already calculated an upper boundary on the possible trip time -- some 76,000 years -- under ideal circumstances, that figure could decrease significantly. "Some estimates indicate a fusion-propelled starship may reach 10 percent the speed of light," says O'Neill. "In this case, the 4.4 light-year trip to Alpha Centauri could be accomplished within 50 years." (Tziolas specifically suggests for the mission a ship with a futuristic-sounding "optimized antimatter-catalyzed fusion scheme, accelerating and decelerating at full thrust.") (Andrews).

According to Special Relativity the mass of an object increases as its speed increases, and approaches infinity as the object's speed approaches the speed of light. This means that it would take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate an object to the speed of light.[t4] 

There's no fundamental reason why we can't get as close to the speed of light as we like, provided we have enough energy. But this is probably far in the future (“Cosmic Distance Scales - The Nearest Star”).

Results of my Research

So, in the end, what's the verdict? If we make it a priority, could our species reach another star system? Right now, it doesn't seem likely. "Perhaps such a mission will be possible in the distant future, but using current technologies to push mankind to the stars, although feasible, would be very slow and laborious” (Andrews).

Works Cited

Andrews, Bill. "How Humans Will Travel To Alpha Centauri. (Cover Story)." Astronomy 40.7 (2012): 22. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 16 Jan. 2013.<http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=7&sid=209cf512-8d7e-4477-aca0-26e4743f8cb7%40sessionmgr13&hid=8&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d>.

Carl, John. "Proxima Centauri." Universe Today RSS. N.p., 19 Mar. 2009. Web. 18 Jan. 2013. <http://www.universetoday.com/59336/proxima-centauri/>.   

"Cosmic Distance Scales - The Nearest Star." Cosmic Distance Scales - The Nearest Star. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2013. <http://heasarc.nasa.gov/docs/cosmic/nearest_star_info.html>.

O'Neill, Ian. "Main Menu." Traveling To Proxima Centauri. N.p., 9 July 2008. Web. 17 Jan.

2013.<http://astroengine.com/2008/07/09/how-long-would-it-take-to-travel-to-proxima-ceauri/>.

Rodriguez, Joshua. "NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration." NASA. N.p., 28 Jan. 2009. Web. 17 Jan.2013.<http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/alpha_centauri_earths.html>.