Tiny spaceships could be accelerated by lasers so that they reach the nearest star in 20 years. That's the theory. Now it's ...

Traveling from one star to another is currently impossible to achieve within a human lifetime. But some projects are designing ways to propel payloads to the nearest star system (Alpha Centauri) using ...

To begin their research, the team built a small, tethered lightsail within a larger membrane. They then shined a visible ...

Powered by laser light, this tiny sail lays the groundwork for future advances in lightsail technology and the potential for ...

But could humans or spacecraft ever reach Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to our planet? Alpha Centauri is about 4.4 ...

"Chemical rockets that we use today, even with the extra speed boost from flying by planets, or from swinging by the sun for ...

A team of scientists has made the first experimental measurements of laser-induced motions of miniature lightsails in the lab.

The project hopes to propel roughly 1,000 tiny "StarChip" spacecraft toward Alpha Centauri, the second-closest star system to Earth, at 20% of light-speed (about 134 million mph). Each "chip ...

Breakthrough Starshot focuses on a tiny design with gigantic solar "wings" that would allow them to ride a beam of light to Alpha Centauri. However, for practical purposes, a probe that small will ...

A best-case-scenario trip to Mars takes around six months with present technology, meanwhile, if you want to visit Alpha Centauri it’s a whole four lightyears away! When it comes to crossing ...

Astronomers measure a star’s brightness using the apparent magnitude system, where lower values indicate brighter stars.