3 ms·
Light Year has a technical meaning, but it is so large that I can't relate to it at all. So I tried to figure out a different unit of measure, and I came up wit
by abtinf 7y ago
Light Year has a technical meaning, but it is so large that I can't relate to it at all. So I tried to figure out a different unit of measure, and I came up with what I call an "Earth Escape Year" or EEY.
From Earth, the escape velocity for our solar system is 42.1 km/s. EEY is the distance traveled for 1 year at that escape velocity. It is the maximum amount of time it would take to reach an interstellar object directly launching from Earth -- any slower and you can't get there at all. 1 LY = 7,121 Escape Years. The upper bound time to reach these planets is about 85k EEY.
- dvdkhlng 7y agoSorry, but this does not make sense in the way you intended. Your 42.1 km/s escape velocity "from earth" is the velocity you need, relative to the sun, at earth's orbital distance from the sun, to escape from the solar system [1]. As you get farther away from the center of gravity, your speed gradually slows down and reaches zero at infinity [2]. So your maximum amount of time for interstellar travel calculation is flawed and underestimates travel time by assumedly few orders of magnitude. [1] https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Solar+System+Escape+Velocity https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Solar+System+Esc... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity