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 ...

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

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

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

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

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

ST. PETERSBURG, September 24. /ITAR-TASS/. St. Petersburg astronomers have spotted one more planet circling a star in the Alpha Centauri system just 4.36 light-years away from the Solar System.

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

The idea of traveling through interstellar space using spacecraft propelled by ultrathin sails may sound like the stuff of sci-fi novels. But in fact, a program started in 2016 by Stephen Hawking and ...

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 ...