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Why Crossing the Milky Way Galaxy is Physically Impossible

[HPP] Neil deGrasse TysonJanuary 25, 202613 min
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The Immense Scale of Galactic Travel

  • 🌌 The Milky Way galaxy spans an incomprehensible 100,000 light-years across, equivalent to 588 quadrillion miles.
  • 🚀 Even our farthest probe, Voyager 1, would take an estimated 1.7 billion years to cross the entire galaxy at its current speed.
  • ⏳ Reaching the closest star, Proxima Centauri, would still require approximately 73,000 years for Voyager 1, a timeframe longer than all human civilization.

Relativistic Speed Barriers

  • ⚡ Achieving 10% of light speed would still require 1 million years to cross the galaxy, while 99% light speed would take 14,000 subjective years for travelers due to time dilation.
  • 🔋 Accelerating to such velocities demands astronomical energy reserves, requiring fuel masses that could outweigh the ship itself, making it practically impossible.
  • 🔥 At relativistic speeds, the sparse interstellar hydrogen transforms into a blazing plasma wall, creating immense ram pressure that would erode and melt spacecraft hulls.

Hazards of Interstellar Space

  • 💥 Tiny interstellar dust grains become
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What’s Discussed

Milky Way GalaxyInterstellar TravelLight-yearsRelativistic SpeedsTime DilationInterstellar MediumCosmic RaysSupernovaeGamma-Ray BurstsGeneration ShipsEntropyFermi ParadoxDrake EquationBreakthrough StarshotSolar System Settlement
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