How long does it take to reach another star system besides the Solar System?

A group of physicists decided to estimate how long it would take us to reach other star systems in the Milky Way using existing spacecraft.

The team looked at four space probes launched by NASA. The calculations help us visualize how long humanity would have to wait to escape the Solar System.

All told, astronauts will have to wait a while longer. It could be tens of thousands of years before a spacecraft reaches another planetary system. If we're talking about direct contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, humanity will have to wait a few billion years.

Voyager 1.

Two scientists, Coryn Bailer-Jones at the Max Plack Institute for Astronomy (Germany) and Davide Farnocchia at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (USA), analyzed the latest data provided by the Gaia Space Telescope (of the European Space Agency) to come to the above conclusion.

The latest cosmological map shows the locations of some 7.2 million stars. The data is mapped to the projected paths of the Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft. The results are not 'comfortable'.

Over the next million years, the four spacecraft will fly close to about 60 stars. They will also be very close to about 10 of them. But it is important to emphasize that ' very close' means within 2 parsecs, or 6 light years.

The Pioneer 10 spacecraft has the best chance of getting as close to the star system as 'fastest'. In about 90,000 years, it will fly by the star system HIP 117795, in the constellation Cassiopeia.

Future probes won't necessarily have to follow the same path, of course, but technology is always moving forward. The Alpha Centauri binary star system is 4.37 light years (1.34 parsecs) away . At its current speed, Voyager 1 could reach the system in 80,000 years.

The above calculations, although not specifically considered, give us an idea of ​​the size of galaxies as well as the universe in general. We will be forced to find new, better technology if we want to go beyond the Solar System.

This is certainly a task for several generations; experts believe that one day we may be able to travel at close to the speed of light. That would take us to the Alpha Centauri star system in about four years.