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Alpha Centauri B

The simulation of a tiny spacecraft being pushed by laser beams from Earth to achieve a speed of about 20% of the speed of light and allow a relatively quick arrival to the nearby star Alpha Centauri. Source: Breakthrough Starshot.

How to fly to the star Alpha Centauri at almost the speed of light

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In the picture the star system closest to the Sun - the double star Alpha Stanauri A and B and their distant companion - Proxima Centauri. At the end of 2016, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) signed an agreement with the Breakthrough initiative to adapt the Very Large Telescope (VLT) instruments to search for planets in the Alpha Centauri system. These planets could be targets for the Breakthrough Starshot initiative to launch tiny spacecraft into this system. Photo: ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org)/Digitized Sky Survey 2 Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin/Mahdi Zamani

Yuri Milner's Breakthrough Starshot project will fund a search for planets in the Alpha Centauri system

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Artist's impression of the planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B. Image: ESO

Good thing it's close: a planet the size of the earth was discovered orbiting the sun closest to us - Alpha Centauri B

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