How Long Would It Take For Aliens To Reach The Solar System?
advertisement
VOICE OVER: Peter DeGiglio
WRITTEN BY: Aidan Johnson
How long until alien life reaches us? If an extraterrestrial life form was travelling to the solar system, how long would it take for it to reach us?
How Long Would It Take For Aliens To Reach The Solar System?
Imagine a distant civilization, similar to our own, and also curious about what lies among the stars. Consider that they might be more advanced than us, and might even know all about us, having spotted our planet from afar. And so, the time might come when our hypothetical civilization decides to venture forth toward us, on their own epic voyage of discovery. How long would it really take them for them to get here?
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; how long would it take aliens to reach the solar system?
Space is often called the final frontier, but it’s also (by some measures) the single greatest challenge that modern humans have ever faced. Even the closest star system to our own, Alpha Centauri, is more than 4 light years away, which is over 25 trillion miles. We sent the Voyager probes in 1977 from this planet to explore the depths of space, and they’ve only passed into the interstellar medium within the last few years. By most measures, they aren’t even properly out of the solar system yet. There’s no two ways about it, space is big. For us and for anyone else that could be watching on.
A light-year is a standard astronomical measurement, defined as the distance light travels in one year. One light-year is equivalent to 5.88 trillion miles. Therefore, if humans could travel at the speed of light - a feat currently considered impossible - then it would also take us one year to move 5.88 trillion miles. Again, it would take us 4 years to get to Alpha Centauri. That’s four whole years if it were possible for humans to travel at the fastest speed it’s physically possible to travel at… which it isn’t. And not by a long shot.
Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is at least 100,000 light-years wide. It would take us at least 100,000 years to travel the length of it, again only if we were travelling at lightspeed. For context the entire human species is roughly 300,000 years old; it would take one third of our entire species lifetime to make one one-way trip from one side of our galaxy to the other. At the higher estimate, there could be two trillion total galaxies in the universe, of which our Milky Way is thought to be average sized. If you wanted to see everything, then that’s two trillion 100,000 year-long trips all while traveling continuously at lightspeed… and not counting all the space that’s in between all of those galaxies.
Clearly, when we imagine a hypothetical, alien group that might be headed this way, a lot has to do with exactly how far away they are to begin with. If they’re on the other side of the universe, we’re looking at a trip that should fundamentally take many thousands of trillions of years to make. If they’re on the other side of the Milky Way, then just one (or a couple) hundred thousand years might do it. If they’re situated in the next star system along, and they are capable of lightspeed (or close to) then four years is the absolute minimum - although more likely we’re still talking decades in transit.
Nevertheless, for an alien civilization that’s around 100 light-years from Earth - i.e., for one that lives very far away, but still theoretically close enough to have already picked up on the light and radio signals we’ve been increasingly beaming out since around the start of the twentieth century - what are their options?
We know the journey would take 100 years at lightspeed. At 10% lightspeed, it would take 1,000 years. An entire millennium. It means that if they did set out at around the start of the twentieth century, then they wouldn’t be rocking up here until around the start of the thirtieth century, at roughly the year 2900. If an alien group from 100 light-years away turned up on Earth tomorrow, again having travelled at 10% lightspeed, then it means they will have had to have set out from their home at sometime around the year 1025 - during the High Middle Ages on Earth, after the Fall of Rome but before Magna Carta, and on the eve of the First Crusade.
Realistically, though, even 10% is difficult for most physicists to imagine. Instead, to make the journey feasible, any approaching alien group will likely have had to have developed some kind of beyond lightspeed method. Chiefly warp drives or wormholes. Both could potentially bypass the limitations of lightspeed, which might be the only way that an alien group could ever seriously get here.
A warp drive, such as the Alcubierre drive, would allow a spacecraft to achieve faster-the-light travel, without actually traveling faster than light. It does this by contracting space in front of it, then expanding what’s behind it, creating a warp bubble around the ship. Locally, inside the bubble, lightspeed isn’t broken, and in fact the ship could be idling along at regular, easily survivable speeds. But thanks to the contracting and expanding all around, the ship still moves through space at a much faster rate. On paper, it’s brilliant. The downside is that - to the human mind, at least - it would apparently require impossible negative energy to work. Suffice to say, we haven’t yet built a working Alcubierre drive. But, perhaps a more advanced alien group has worked out how to do it.
Regardless, many feel that wormholes are the more promising option, because if they do exist then they should (much more simply) be a product of nature. Wormholes are predicted by Einstein’s theories of relativity, and are hypothetical structures connecting two distant points in space and time - bridging them together to create shortcuts, and to turn gargantuan journeys into small ones. The problem is that - unlike with black holes, which were similarly predicted by Einstein’s work - we’ve never yet observed a genuine wormhole in space. And then, even if we did, they’re predicted to be wholly unstable, to the point that they might just as well blink in and out of existence, from our perspective on Earth. Again, wormholes are clearly something that humans are very far from mastering. But again, perhaps a more advanced alien group will have done so.
How long would it take for aliens to reach the solar system using a warp drive? There’s ultimately no limit to just how quickly they might arrive. How long if they were to utilise a wormhole? If an exit point were to somehow materialize within our corner of space, then the trip could well be instant from the adventurous alien’s perspective. But clearly here, unlike when considering the practical speed of light, we’re dealing solely in speculation. If warp drives and wormholes do exist, then an alien’s trip could be seriously quick. But, in essence, the same could be said for teleportation or for any other hypothesized (but not proven) means of travel.
If an alien landed tomorrow, and if it were to gracefully explain to us how it had got here, and if it did so in any time quicker than what the speed of light should allow… then their means would effectively equate to magic in our eyes. To understand it would require a monumental paradigm shift on our behalf. And perhaps the knowledge alone would be enough to fundamentally change us forever. Of course, there has been growing talk in recent times of non-human intelligence and technology, in relation to modern UFO (or UAP) sightings. The watching world has now seen countless clips showing objects that move in apparently impossible ways. But even they perhaps fall short of what would truly be needed if an alien civilization were to travel here from outside the solar system.
Suppose for a moment that any one of the UAPs on record really is an alien ship, then it has either performed magic via wormholes or warp drives to get here… or it has survived the vast and empty reaches of space for probably hundreds of thousands of years before now. The ship itself would need near-infinite fuel, the crew of that ship would need near-infinite sustenance, and everyone involved would require supreme patience. Any trip through space (via traditional, physically possible means) is a long trip. Longer than anything we can sufficiently imagine on Earth. But, if an alien civilization ever did reach (or ever has reached) the solar system, then that’s exactly the kind of trip that they’ll have had to endure.
Imagine a distant civilization, similar to our own, and also curious about what lies among the stars. Consider that they might be more advanced than us, and might even know all about us, having spotted our planet from afar. And so, the time might come when our hypothetical civilization decides to venture forth toward us, on their own epic voyage of discovery. How long would it really take them for them to get here?
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; how long would it take aliens to reach the solar system?
Space is often called the final frontier, but it’s also (by some measures) the single greatest challenge that modern humans have ever faced. Even the closest star system to our own, Alpha Centauri, is more than 4 light years away, which is over 25 trillion miles. We sent the Voyager probes in 1977 from this planet to explore the depths of space, and they’ve only passed into the interstellar medium within the last few years. By most measures, they aren’t even properly out of the solar system yet. There’s no two ways about it, space is big. For us and for anyone else that could be watching on.
A light-year is a standard astronomical measurement, defined as the distance light travels in one year. One light-year is equivalent to 5.88 trillion miles. Therefore, if humans could travel at the speed of light - a feat currently considered impossible - then it would also take us one year to move 5.88 trillion miles. Again, it would take us 4 years to get to Alpha Centauri. That’s four whole years if it were possible for humans to travel at the fastest speed it’s physically possible to travel at… which it isn’t. And not by a long shot.
Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is at least 100,000 light-years wide. It would take us at least 100,000 years to travel the length of it, again only if we were travelling at lightspeed. For context the entire human species is roughly 300,000 years old; it would take one third of our entire species lifetime to make one one-way trip from one side of our galaxy to the other. At the higher estimate, there could be two trillion total galaxies in the universe, of which our Milky Way is thought to be average sized. If you wanted to see everything, then that’s two trillion 100,000 year-long trips all while traveling continuously at lightspeed… and not counting all the space that’s in between all of those galaxies.
Clearly, when we imagine a hypothetical, alien group that might be headed this way, a lot has to do with exactly how far away they are to begin with. If they’re on the other side of the universe, we’re looking at a trip that should fundamentally take many thousands of trillions of years to make. If they’re on the other side of the Milky Way, then just one (or a couple) hundred thousand years might do it. If they’re situated in the next star system along, and they are capable of lightspeed (or close to) then four years is the absolute minimum - although more likely we’re still talking decades in transit.
Nevertheless, for an alien civilization that’s around 100 light-years from Earth - i.e., for one that lives very far away, but still theoretically close enough to have already picked up on the light and radio signals we’ve been increasingly beaming out since around the start of the twentieth century - what are their options?
We know the journey would take 100 years at lightspeed. At 10% lightspeed, it would take 1,000 years. An entire millennium. It means that if they did set out at around the start of the twentieth century, then they wouldn’t be rocking up here until around the start of the thirtieth century, at roughly the year 2900. If an alien group from 100 light-years away turned up on Earth tomorrow, again having travelled at 10% lightspeed, then it means they will have had to have set out from their home at sometime around the year 1025 - during the High Middle Ages on Earth, after the Fall of Rome but before Magna Carta, and on the eve of the First Crusade.
Realistically, though, even 10% is difficult for most physicists to imagine. Instead, to make the journey feasible, any approaching alien group will likely have had to have developed some kind of beyond lightspeed method. Chiefly warp drives or wormholes. Both could potentially bypass the limitations of lightspeed, which might be the only way that an alien group could ever seriously get here.
A warp drive, such as the Alcubierre drive, would allow a spacecraft to achieve faster-the-light travel, without actually traveling faster than light. It does this by contracting space in front of it, then expanding what’s behind it, creating a warp bubble around the ship. Locally, inside the bubble, lightspeed isn’t broken, and in fact the ship could be idling along at regular, easily survivable speeds. But thanks to the contracting and expanding all around, the ship still moves through space at a much faster rate. On paper, it’s brilliant. The downside is that - to the human mind, at least - it would apparently require impossible negative energy to work. Suffice to say, we haven’t yet built a working Alcubierre drive. But, perhaps a more advanced alien group has worked out how to do it.
Regardless, many feel that wormholes are the more promising option, because if they do exist then they should (much more simply) be a product of nature. Wormholes are predicted by Einstein’s theories of relativity, and are hypothetical structures connecting two distant points in space and time - bridging them together to create shortcuts, and to turn gargantuan journeys into small ones. The problem is that - unlike with black holes, which were similarly predicted by Einstein’s work - we’ve never yet observed a genuine wormhole in space. And then, even if we did, they’re predicted to be wholly unstable, to the point that they might just as well blink in and out of existence, from our perspective on Earth. Again, wormholes are clearly something that humans are very far from mastering. But again, perhaps a more advanced alien group will have done so.
How long would it take for aliens to reach the solar system using a warp drive? There’s ultimately no limit to just how quickly they might arrive. How long if they were to utilise a wormhole? If an exit point were to somehow materialize within our corner of space, then the trip could well be instant from the adventurous alien’s perspective. But clearly here, unlike when considering the practical speed of light, we’re dealing solely in speculation. If warp drives and wormholes do exist, then an alien’s trip could be seriously quick. But, in essence, the same could be said for teleportation or for any other hypothesized (but not proven) means of travel.
If an alien landed tomorrow, and if it were to gracefully explain to us how it had got here, and if it did so in any time quicker than what the speed of light should allow… then their means would effectively equate to magic in our eyes. To understand it would require a monumental paradigm shift on our behalf. And perhaps the knowledge alone would be enough to fundamentally change us forever. Of course, there has been growing talk in recent times of non-human intelligence and technology, in relation to modern UFO (or UAP) sightings. The watching world has now seen countless clips showing objects that move in apparently impossible ways. But even they perhaps fall short of what would truly be needed if an alien civilization were to travel here from outside the solar system.
Suppose for a moment that any one of the UAPs on record really is an alien ship, then it has either performed magic via wormholes or warp drives to get here… or it has survived the vast and empty reaches of space for probably hundreds of thousands of years before now. The ship itself would need near-infinite fuel, the crew of that ship would need near-infinite sustenance, and everyone involved would require supreme patience. Any trip through space (via traditional, physically possible means) is a long trip. Longer than anything we can sufficiently imagine on Earth. But, if an alien civilization ever did reach (or ever has reached) the solar system, then that’s exactly the kind of trip that they’ll have had to endure.
