Question

It would take almost 2 years for the fastest human-made spacecraft to travel from earth to europa. about how long would it take such a spacecraft to travel to wolf 359? study island

Answer 1

several million years

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

First, we need the distance of Europe and Wolf-359 from Earth.
- The distance of Europe from Earth is:
`d_E = 6.28 \cdot 10^8 km`
- The distance of Wolf-359 from Earth is instead 7.795 light years. However, we need to convert this number into km. 1 light year is the distance covered by the light in 1 year. Keeping in mind that the speed of light is
`c=3 \cdot 10^8 m/s`, and that in 1 year there are
365 days x 24 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds =
`3.154 \cdot 10^7 s/y`, the distance between Wolf-359 and Earth is

`d_W = 7.995 ly\cdot3\cdot 10^8 m/s \cdot 3.154 \cdot 10^7 s=7.38 \cdot 10^(16)m=7.38 \cdot 10^(13)km`

Now we can calculate the time the spaceship needs to go to Wolf-359, by writing a simple proportion. In fact, we know that the spaceship takes 2 years to cover
`d_E`, so

`2 y:d_E = x:d_W`
from which we find
`x`, the time needed to reach Wolf-359:

`x= (2 y\cdot d_W)/(d_E)=2.35 \cdot 10^5 years`