this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2025
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Futurology

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[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If I recall, the earth is 4.5 billion years old?

So if that planet was traveling at about 1/billionth the speed of light, it could be nearly 47 light years away now.

I think that's roughly 1000km/h which sounds perfectly achievable considering we orbit the sun at 67,000km/h.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

4.5 billion divided by 1 billion is 4.5. You're off by an order of magnitude.

Also, there is a lot of stuff we can see within 47 light years. Stumbling across a planet that was ejected from our solar system is highly improbable, but even less so is that planet being captured by another star and having a stable orbit. Not impossible, mind you, but the lottery is a safer bet.