USAAAO — 2023 First Round
Question 15
With the technology currently available, it would take hundreds of millennia to send a human-made object to other stars. A possible solution to this problem is to use relativistic light sails, which consist of very small probes propelled by radiation pressure. It is estimated that on the reference frame of an Earth observer, these sails would take 20.0 years to reach Alpha Centauri, which is 4.37 light-years away from the Solar System. The velocity of a light sail can be assumed to be constant throughout the entire trip. How long would this trip be on the reference frame of the light sail?
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Source
USAAAO 2023 First Round. Question text, choices, and answer were transcribed from the official USAAAO exam and solutions PDFs.