How Long Would It Take For Aliens To Reach The Solar System?

Unveiled

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00:00Imagine a distant civilization, similar to our own, and also curious about what lies

00:05among the stars.

00:07Consider that they might be more advanced than us, and might even know all about us,

00:11having spotted our planet from afar.

00:13And so, the time might come when our hypothetical civilization decides to venture forth towards

00:19us, on their own epic voyage of discovery.

00:22How long would it really take for them to get here?

00:26This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question, how long would

00:30it take aliens to reach the solar system?

00:33Do you need the big questions answered?

00:35Are you constantly curious?

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00:43Space is often called the final frontier, but it's also, by some measures, the single

00:47greatest challenge that modern humans have ever faced.

00:51Even the closest solar system to our own, Alpha Centauri, is more than four light-years

00:55away, which is over 25 trillion miles.

00:59We sent the Voyager probes in 1977 from this planet to explore the depths of space, and

01:05they've only passed into the interstellar medium within the last few years.

01:09By most measures, they aren't even properly out of the solar system yet.

01:12There's no two ways about it, space is big.

01:16For us, and for anyone else that could be watching on.

01:19A light-year is a standard astronomical measurement, defined as the distance light travels in one

01:24year.

01:25One light-year is equivalent to 5.88 trillion miles.

01:29Therefore, if humans could travel at the speed of light, a feat currently considered impossible,

01:34then it would also take us one year to move 5.88 trillion miles.

01:39Again, it would take us four years to get to Alpha Centauri.

01:42That's four whole years if it were possible for humans to travel at the fastest speed

01:48it's physically possible to travel at.

01:50Which it isn't, and not by a long shot.

01:53Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is at least 100,000 light-years wide.

01:58It would take us at least 100,000 years to travel the length of it, again, only if we

02:03were travelling at light-speed.

02:05For context, the entire human species is roughly 300,000 years old.

02:09It would take one-third of our entire species' lifetime to make one one-way trip from one

02:15side of our galaxy to the other.

02:17At the higher estimate, there could be two trillion total galaxies in the universe, of

02:22which our Milky Way is thought to be average-sized.

02:25If you wanted to see everything, then that's two trillion, 100,000-year-long trips, all

02:30while travelling continuously at light-speed, and not counting all the space that's in

02:35between all of those galaxies.

02:38Clearly, when we imagine a hypothetical alien group that might be headed this way, a lot

02:43has to do with exactly how far away they are to begin with.

02:46If they're on the other side of the universe, we're looking at a trip that should fundamentally

02:50take many thousands of trillions of years to make.

02:54If they're on the other side of the Milky Way, then just one or a couple of hundred

02:58thousand years might do it.

03:00If they're situated in the next star system along, and they are capable of light-speed

03:04or close to, then four years is the absolute minimum, although we're likely still talking

03:10decades in transit.

03:11Nevertheless, for an alien civilization that's around 100 light-years from Earth… i.e.

03:17for one that lives very far away, but still theoretically close enough to have already

03:21picked up on the light and radio signals we've been increasingly beaming out since around

03:26the start of the twentieth century… what are their options?

03:29We know that the journey would take 100 years at light-speed.

03:32At 10% light-speed, it would take 1,000 years, an entire millennium.

03:37It means that if they did set out around the start of the twelfth century, then they

03:41wouldn't be rocking up here until around the start of the thirtieth century, at roughly

03:46the year 2900.

03:48If an alien group from 10 light-years away turned up on Earth tomorrow, again having

03:52travelled at 10% light-speed, then it means they will have had to have set out from their

03:57home at some time around the year 1025, during the High Middle Ages on Earth, after the fall

04:04of Rome but before the Magna Carta, and on the eve of the First Crusade.

04:08Realistically, though, even 10% is difficult for most physicists to imagine.

04:14Instead, to make the journey feasible, any approaching alien group will likely have had

04:18to have developed some kind of beyond-light-speed method, chiefly warp drives or wormholes.

04:25Both could potentially bypass the limitations of light-speed, which might be the only way

04:29that an alien group could ever seriously get here.

04:32A warp drive, such as the Alcubierre Drive, would allow a spacecraft to achieve faster-than-light

04:37travel without actually travelling faster than light.

04:41It does this by contracting space in front of it, then expanding what's behind it,

04:46creating a warp bubble around the ship.

04:48Locally, inside the bubble, light-speed isn't broken, and in fact the ship could be idling

04:53along at regular, easily survivable speeds.

04:56But thanks to the contracting and expanding all around, the ship still moves through space

05:01at a much faster rate.

05:02On paper, it's brilliant.

05:04The downside is that, to the human mind at least, it would apparently require impossible

05:09negative energy to work.

05:11Suffice to say, we haven't yet built a working Alcubierre Drive, but perhaps a more advanced

05:16alien group has worked out how to do it.

05:19Regardless, many feel that wormholes are the more promising option.

05:23Because if they do exist, then they should, much more simply, be a product of nature.

05:28Wormholes are predicted by Einstein's theories of relativity, and are hypothetical structures

05:32connecting two distant points in space and time, bridging them together to create shortcuts

05:37and to turn gargantuan journeys into small ones.

05:41The problem is that, unlike with black holes, which are similarly predicted by Einstein's

05:45work, we've never yet observed a genuine wormhole in space.

05:49And then, even if we did, they're predicted to be wholly unstable, to the point where

05:53they might just well blink in and out of existence, from our perspective on Earth.

05:58Again, wormholes are clearly something that humans are very far from mastering.

06:02But, again, perhaps a more advanced alien group will have done so.

06:07How long would it take for aliens to reach the solar system using a warp drive?

06:11There's ultimately no limit to just how quickly they might arrive.

06:15How long if they were to utilise a wormhole?

06:17If an exit point were to somehow materialise within our corner of space, then the trip

06:22could well be instant from the adventurous alien's perspective.

06:25But clearly here, unlike when considering the practical speed of light, we're dealing

06:30solely in speculation.

06:32If warp drives and wormholes do exist, then an alien's trip could be seriously quick.

06:38But, in essence, the same could be said for teleportation, or for any other hypothesised

06:43but not proven means of travel.

06:45If an alien landed tomorrow, and if it were to gracefully explain to us how it had got

06:50here, and if it did so in any time quicker than what the speed of light should allow,

06:55then their means would effectively equate to magic, in our eyes.

06:59To understand it would require a monumental paradigm shift on our behalf.

07:03And perhaps the knowledge alone would be enough to fundamentally change us forever.

07:07Of course, there has been growing talk in recent times of non-human intelligence and

07:12technology.

07:13In relation to modern UFO or UAP sightings, the watching world has now seen countless

07:18clips showing objects that move in apparently impossible ways… but even they perhaps fall

07:24short of what would truly be needed if an alien civilisation were to travel here from

07:28outside the solar system.

07:31Suppose for a moment that any one of the UAPs on record really is an alien ship.

07:36Then it has either performed magic via wormholes or warp drives to get here, or it has survived

07:41the vast and empty reaches of space for probably hundreds of thousands of years before now.

07:47The ship itself would need near-infinite fuel, the crew of that ship would need near-infinite

07:52sustenance, and everyone involved would require supreme patience.

07:57Any trip through space, via traditional, physically possible means, is a long trip… longer than

08:03anything we can sufficiently imagine on Earth.

08:07But if an alien civilisation ever did reach, or ever has reached, the solar system, then

08:12that's exactly the kind of trip that they'll have had to endure.

08:16What do you think?

08:17Is there anything we missed?

08:19Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you

08:23subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.

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