News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on An mK = 7.8 star may enter the Einstein ring of alpha Cen A in 2028 (2016).

Re:An mK = 7.8 star may enter the Einstein ring of alpha Cen... by dilippkumar on Thursday March 03, 2022 @09:16AM (#30541281)
> The proper motion, orbital parameters and parallax of alpha Cen will be measurable with an extreme accuracy from differential astrometry with the S stars. This will be valuable, for example to prepare the Breakthrough Starshot initiative to send interstellar nanocrafts to alpha Centauri.

I’ve never heard of the Breakthrough Starshot initiative. Can someone here please point me to some more details about this?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:An mK = 7.8 star may enter the Einstein ring of alpha Cen... by divbzero on Thursday March 03, 2022 @01:37PM (#30544849)
It is one of several Breakthrough Initiatives [1] established by Julia and Yuri Milner. Breakthrough Starshot [2] aims to send a fleet of extremely small probes to Alpha Centauri in a flyby mission.

(Another initiative, Breakthrough Enceladus, would send a probe to the Saturn moon but I cannot find information about whether this is an active ongoing effort.)

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Initiatives

[2]: https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/3

[ Parent | on HN ]