the.com/distant worlds
planets so far away that saying hello takes centuries and getting a reply takes longer.
means exoplanets and star systems beyond our own, detected but never visited, known mostly through starlight and inference.
from the phrase predates real evidence by millennia, but became literal in 1992 when astronomers confirmed the first planets orbiting a star other than the sun, a pulsar no less.
count so farover 5,500 confirmed exoplanets as of 2024
detection trickmost found by watching stars dim slightly
nearest neighborproxima centauri b, four light-years away
travel timechemical rockets would take 70,000 years