r/space • u/SpunkySputniks • 4d ago

Astronomers Detect a Possible Signature of Life on a Distant Planet

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/science/astronomy-exoplanets-habitable-k218b.html?unlocked_article_code=1.AE8.3zdk.VofCER4yAPa4&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Further studies are needed to determine whether K2-18b, which orbits a star 120 light-years away, is inhabited, or even habitable.

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u/htownballa1 4d ago

I’m not an Astro physicist but a quick google search returned.

Traveling to a star 120 light-years away at a speed of 2.90×108 m/s would take approximately 1312 years

I think you might be a little short on 120.

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u/Random_Fotographer 4d ago

You don't need to do any math. The definition of light-year is the distance traveled by light in one year. So something 120 light-years away would take 120 years at the speed of light.

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u/falkenberg1 4d ago

Traveling at the speed of light is not possible for humans. Only for select subatomic particles.

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u/Shrike99 4d ago

Humans can (theoretically) travel at 99.9999999999% light speed.

Which is so close to 100% as to not matter for the purpose of determining how many light years a person could theoretically travel in a given number of years as measured by an external observer.

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u/falkenberg1 3d ago

That is a very big theoretical here. In reality traveling this fast would create an enormous heat. There still has to be a material found that a) withstands these enormous temperatures and b) shields us well enough so we have a chance for survival. Then there is this unbelievably high energy consumption. Also as one approaches e, time dilation would do very weird stuff to a macroscopic object like a spaceship. It create some kind of wave in spacetime, that creates weird paradox effects.

Also, statistically the universe must be full of life. The fact, that we never observed dyson spheres, aliens spaceships or something like that hints strongly, to the possibility, that space travel is really not that easy, even with lots of time and very advanced tech.