logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2020
9m 4s

Our Stellar Neighbor Beckons

Whyy
About this episode

The dim red star Proxima Centauri, 4.2 lightyears from Earth, is known to have an EarthPlus-planet in the star’s habitable zone. Now a second planet has been detected, but this one is 5.8 times the mass of our planet and orbits its star only once every five years. Unfortunately, it’s also too far from the cool star to be warm enough for liquid water. So, it’s not habitable – at least for us.
Which leads to a proposal to send 1,000 tiny spacecraft – really just a computer chip attached to a solar sail driven by ground-based lasers with 100 gigawatts of power to drive them along. The idea is that the tiny chips, with so little mass, could be driven up to 15-20% of the speed of light, making the 4.2 light year trip in just 20-30 years. Initial funding of $100 million comes from Russian Yuri Milner, backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Stephen Hawking.

–When totaling up all the matter in the universe, cosmologists believe that about 80% of the mass of the universe is completely unseen dark matter, 21% is dark energy and just 4% is all the actual matter of the universe. According to all the mass of the universe that can be accounted for, the universe’s rate of expansion, left over after the universe’s inflation period, should indicate a gradual decrease in that expansion rate – the expansion should be slowing. But it isn’t. In fact, it’s accelerating!
To compensate, cosmologists have introduced the concept of dark energy – an unseen and undetectable force that seems to be pushing clusters of galaxies apart. If the expansion push is totaled up across the universe, the result accounts for the rate of expansion now seen in the universe. Now the basic premise behind dark energy, the unseen force that seems to be driving the universe’s increasing expansion rate, has a serious flaw related to how distance around the universe is determined.
If that discrepancy cannot be resolved, it may be that dark energy isn’t a piece of the cosmic puzzle at all.
The new observations haven’t been widely accepted and the results have to be tested by other research teams. Stay tuned.

The Moon and Mars are visible early this week in the 6:15 – 6:30 a.m. window in the East. Jupiter is now very low in the east at 6:30 a.m. Yes, that’s Venus in the south-west after sunset. It’ll be there for a few months, getting brighter and higher.

Up next
Feb 2020
Cold Snap Up North
NASA’s InSight Mars lander keeps daily records of weather conditions at the Elysium Planitia landing site on the red planet. Last week saw daytime highs from 8 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit; lows fell to -139 degrees. Seasons are twice as long on Mars as on Earth because the Martian y ... Show More
6m 23s
Feb 2020
Older than Dirt
Stardust discovered in a meteorite that landed in Australia more than 50 years ago is up to three billion years older than our solar system. These remnants are left over from ancient stars that populated this region of the galaxy prior to the birth of our sun, some 4.5 billion ye ... Show More
8m 34s
Feb 2020
Taking a Telescope to Galileo
Today is Galileo’s 456th birth anniversary. His iconoclastic reputation overshadows his basic raison d’etre at the time – to make a buck. He was a struggling teacher who worked in the ‘gig economy’ of Renaissance Italy. Galileo wasn’t born to a high place in society; he wasn’t a ... Show More
10m 37s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 26
Inside the Dramatic Race to Decode the Human Genome
Twenty-five years ago, President Bill Clinton announced a historic achievement: The completion of the first-ever survey of the human genome. The ceremony focused on the power of unity and collaboration — but, behind the scenes, the journey to this generational discovery had been ... Show More
49m 34s
Sep 2024
EP 153: How genomics is re-writing the taxonomy of disease with Lon Cardon, President and CEO of The Jackson Laboratory
This week, Patrick welcomes President and CEO of The Jackson Laboratory, Lon Cardon. They discuss the rise of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and how they changed the face of genetics research and why Lon took the plunge and moved from academia to industry in an era when i ... Show More
40m 25s
Oct 2023
How I Took 9 Years off My Age: Live From Toronto with Gene Therapy Pioneer Dr. Adeel Khan : 1098
In this episode, we're broadcasting live from Toronto with Dr. Adeel Khan, a leading figure in the field of gene and cell therapies. Dr. Adeel Khan, who holds an M.D. and is a Canadian Board Certified Physician, specializes in regenerative and cellular medicine. He is also a reco ... Show More
1h 50m
Jan 2025
Driving Disease Risk Prediction and Preventative Healthcare with AI - with Dan Elton of the National Human Genome Research Institute
Today’s guest is Dan Elton, Staff Scientist at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dan returns to explore the transformative role of AI in healthcare. In his new role, Dan shares how his work at NIH focuses on integrati ... Show More
15m 14s
Apr 1
Breaking Down AI’s Role in Genomics and Polygenic Risk Prediction - with Dan Elton of the National Human Genome Research Institute
Today’s guest is Dan Elton, a Staff Scientist at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dan returns to the program to explore how AI is advancing genetic research, from protein engineering to gene editing and risk predicti ... Show More
20m 3s
Mar 2025
CRISPR: the cutting edge of gene editing
In this edition of Naked Genetics, we take a closer look at CRISPR gene editing. What is it? And what are the ethics involved in rewriting the human genome? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists 
29m 53s
Jul 2024
Audio long read: Hope, despair and CRISPR — the race to save one woman’s life
In India, a group of researchers raced to develop a CRISPR-based genome editing therapy to save the life of a young woman with a rare neurodegenerative disease. Despite a valiant effort, the pace of research was ultimately too slow to save her life. While many are convinced that ... Show More
23m 4s
Mar 2025
CRISPR, and the ethics of gene editing
In this edition of The Naked Scientists, we take a closer look at CRISPR gene editing. What is it? And what are the ethics involved in rewriting the human genome? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists 
30m 34s
Oct 2024
The Future of Humanity? How CRISPR Could Change Life Forever
The Future of Humanity? How CRISPR Could Change Life Forever" - In this episode, we explore the groundbreaking world of CRISPR and genetic engineering, technologies that promise to reshape our future. Discover how CRISPR's precision editing could eliminate genetic diseases, enhan ... Show More
15m 44s
Dec 2024
[Spécial] Retro 2024 : ce qu'il faut retenir de l'année écoulée
Dans ce dernier épisode de l'année de Monde Numérique, je reviens sur une année 2024 marquée par des avancées technologiques spectaculaires et des défis cruciaux en intelligence artificielle. 2024 s’achève, marquée par une course folle en IA. Google a lancé Gemini, suivi par Open ... Show More
15m 22s