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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
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