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The nearest planet outside our solar system is only 10.5 light years away
That is just a twenty-one year round-trip journey
Traveling at the speed of light
Einstein forbids us from ever going that fast
Something about mass increasing with speed
But as a child, I dreamed about boarding a ship
And sailing through space
And exploring the solar systems of the Milky Way
And encountering foreign forms of life
My imagination was a product of the Apollo flights
And all the extraterrestrial films and shows
Of the seventies, eighties, and nineties
Yet, I am an adult now
I am fully grown
And NASA has not done anything to hold my attention in decades
The nearest planet outside our solar system is only 10.5 light years away
That is just a twenty-one year round-trip
Traveling at the speed of light
It is the child of a sun called Epsilon Eridani
It is not yet clear how many planets revolve around that star
But that one we know of so far is 1.5 times the size of Jupiter
Will that giant ball of gas have as many moons as our biggest sister?
If so, some of them might be able to support life in some way
Like we think that organisms might live beneath Europa’s ice
Creatures like the ones that thrive in our cold, dark ocean’s depths
Could there be an Earth-like planet—an Earth 2 orbiting Epsilon Eridani?
Are there sentient and intelligent species on any of its worlds?
The nearest planet outside our solar system is only 10.5 light years away
That is just a twenty-one year journey to it and back
Traveling at the speed of light
That is one trip I would gladly take
Although Einstein forbids us from going that fast
But I know that there are other people who look up at the stars
And that somewhere there are smart kids dreaming about FTL flight
It is with them, that my hope of someday boarding a starship rests
The nearest planet outside our solar system is only 10.5 light years away
