The discovery of a potentially Earth-like planet around Proxima Centauri, the star
closest to our sun, has ignited interest in whether the alien world could support life — and if so, how humans might one day launch a space probe to the newfound planet.
Though the planet, dubbed Proxima b, is the closest alien world that has been discovered so far, it is still located 4.2 light-years away, which is equivalent to about 25 trillion miles. As such, there's still some technological distance to make up if humanity wants to see the newly discovered alien world up close.
Getting to another star will require something a lot faster than chemical rockets. The so-called Breakthrough Starshot project, unveiled in April by billionaire investor Yuri Milner and renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, proposes using a laser to push a tiny, wafer-size spaceship to some fraction of the speed of light, and letting it sail off on a ballistic path to a nearby star — in this case, Alpha Centauri, which is located about 4.3 light-years away from Earth. [8 Most Intriguing Earth-Like Planets] https://www.livescience.com/55900-proxima-b-interstellar-spaceflight-technologies.html
