Word: centauri
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...m.p.h. Soaring past Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, it would reach the outer limits of the solar system with almost no speed left. Then, like a chip on a glassy lake, it could drift for millions of years before it approached the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, which is 25 trillion miles away from the sun. Man's spaceships can probably reach interstellar escape velocity in a generation, but there will be little profit in interstellar voyages. They will take too long. The barrier that protects the stars and their planetary systems from human invasion is not space...
...discovery by Shapley and his Harvard colleagues of the periodic flare-up of Proxima Centauri, the star nearest the earth (25 trillion miles). These explosive flashes double the intensity of the star, which is normally 10,000 times brighter than...