1.
If you compressed the entire history of Earth into a single calendar year, humans appear at 11:36 pm on the 31st of December, agriculture at 11:59, and everything written down in history occupies the final 15 seconds before midnight
https://spacedaily.com/t-if-you-compressed-the-entire-history-of-earth-into-a-single-calendar-year-humans-appear-at-1136-pm-on-the-31st-of-december-agriculture-at-1159-and-everything-written-down-in-history-occupies-the/
2.
Voyager 1 Has Traveled Through Space at 38,000 Mph Since 1977 And Still Hasn't Reached 1 Light-Day
https://www.sciencealert.com/voyager-1-has-been-flying-across-space-since-1977-and-still-hasnt-traveled-1-light-day
EG's earlier post immediately came to mind. Found it.
To Scale: TIME - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOVvEbH2GC0
Those 1st two links showed up randomly in my newsfeeds this morning. Keep the Voyager one in mind the next time you see "Astronomers found an earth-like planet ONLY 30 light-YEARS away" in the news.
>> Still Hasn't Reached 1 Light-Day
That boggles my mind.
> ONLY 30 light-YEARS
I have a friend who is absolutely sure that alien abductions have happened and his proof is that he knows someone it happened to. This is not a point on which discussion is welcome, so I have kept my thoughts to myself.
Those thoughts being: I can just never get around the fact that the amount of energy required to get a spacecraft to earth from ONLY 30 light-YEARS away with all the equipment necessary to enter the atmosphere and bring a person aboard WHILE being capable of staying hidden from the entire SETI project just sounds rather improbable
The other thoughts being: yes, and it was common for medieval Europeans to see angels, demons and Satan, but it doesn't mean I think they did.
The engineers trying to save a fading Voyager had one chance to fire thrusters frozen and unused for 37 years, and when the signal finally returned they learned the impossible had worked
https://spacedaily.com/t-voyager-thrusters-37-years-signal-returned/
>when the signal finally returned
So, when you start on your journey to that Shangri-La planet only 30 LYs away, communication with earth is getting weak or failing at 1 LD
Must be analog. Digital would have crapped out in 7.
Heck if the analog bits were made today they would be cheesy.
> communication
This is a minor plot point in Project Hail Mary. They don't bother to include any radio communications because the energy required to get a signal back to earth would be too great, so they settle on small spacecraft that will take both data and small samples back.
Incredible Atmosphere Detection In Habitable-Zone Rocky Exoplanet Located Just 49 Light-Years Away | IFLScience
https://www.iflscience.com/incredible-atmosphere-detection-in-habitable-zone-rocky-exoplanet-located-just-49-light-years-away-84126
Gem: It would take Voyager 1 approximately 864,740 Earth calendar years to travel a distance of 49 light-years.