Scientists have calculated the time of flight to Sirius
The representative of the German Institute for solar system research them. Max Planck rené Heller believes that to reach the orbit of Sirius — the brightest star in our night sky — just 69 years, despite the fact that it is located twice as far as the nearest to us stars in the system alpha Centauri.
A private company called Breakthrough Starshot earlier planned to send the miniature and ultra-light space ship to alpha Centauri to explore the planets in the system. By calculations of experts, the journey to the system at the fifth speed is only 20 years old, but under such conditions the ship will only fly past planets in just a few seconds and will not stay in orbit, writes New Scientist.
However, Heller and independent researcher Michael Hippke created a method that allows the ship to reduce speed, using the light from the stars themselves. However, this technique puts alpha Centauri at a disadvantage, because the ship will be able to access the system only for 140 years.
At the same time, Sirius, who is from the Earth is eight light-years, or twice as far is alpha Centauri, but it shines 16 times brighter, will help to effectively speed up and slow down the spacecraft.
According to scientists, time in the way they are calculated as the distance divided by the square root of the luminosity value. Thus, the time required for the journey to Sirius is shorter than alpha Centauri and is only 69 years.