Dr. Kenneth Hicks
“Do you have the makings of a starship in your pocket? Today’s cellphones are a testament to how quickly technology has allowed the miniaturization of computer chips and cameras,” writes Dr. Kenneth Hicks, Professor of Physics & Astronomy at Ohio University, in the Columbus Dispatch.
A new initiative called Breakthrough Starshot was announced a few months ago with a goal of sending a probe the size of a postage stamp to our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri….
Strangely, Alpha Centauri has a smaller companion that is called Proxima Centauri. It is a red dwarf star about one-eighth the mass of our sun. It appears to be in orbit at a great distance from the Alpha Centauri core, about 400 times farther out than is the orbit of Pluto around our sun.
There was some excitement about Proxima Centauri at the end of August, when the European Southern Observatory announced that an Earth-mass planet is orbiting this dwarf star at a distance where it likely gets enough warmth to harbor liquid water.
Sending a space probe with a camera to get a close up view of this newly discovered planet would be a breakthrough. But can we do it?
Read the rest of his column in the Dispatch.
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