Will humanity be trapped in the solar system forever? What would humans do without superluminal speeds and wormholes?

The solar system is a system of celestial bodies maintained by the sun's gravity. That is to say, all celestial bodies within the effective range of the sun's gravity belong to the solar system. Then, according to this definition, how big is the solar system?

The outermost layers of the first three parts in the above figure correspond to the orbits of Jupiter, Pluto and the asteroid "Sedna" respectively, and the outermost layer of the fourth part is the Oort Cloud, This is a spherical cloud with a radius of about 1 light-year, mainly composed of icy objects.

In other words, the Oort cloud is the boundary of the solar system. Humans can only fly out of the solar system when they fly out of the Oort cloud, but this is not enough. After all, we still need to reach a destination (not always Probably in interstellar space), and as far as we know, even the nearest star is 4.22 light-years away.

1 light-year is about 9.46 trillion kilometers. Humans are currently unable to complete interstellar flight at the light-year level. Therefore, in the future, if humans want to fly out of the solar system and enter the vast sea of ​​stars, they must have much more advanced technology than now. And the most direct is the super-light flight technology.

In addition, there is a more cool technology-traversing wormholes. In simple terms, the so-called wormholes are channels connecting two different time and space. If humans in the future can create worms that spaceships can travel through A hole, you can reach another space-time several light-years away in a very short time.

However, this is only an imaginary technology. Perhaps under the constraints of the laws of the universe, these technologies cannot be realized at all, so the question arises: If there is no superluminal speed and wormholes, what should humans do? In this case, will humans be trapped in the solar system forever?

In 2017, humans discovered an "uninvited guest" in the solar system, Oumuamua. When it broke into the solar system, its speed was only 26 kilometers per second. Scientists speculate that 'Oumuamua came from a star cluster 163 to 277 light-years away, and it took about 40 million years of flight to reach the solar system.

'Oumuamua is the first known celestial body from outside our solar system, and it vividly shows us a "stupid way" of interstellar flight - using time to conquer distance. Obviously, in the absence of superluminal speed and wormholes, future humans can also use this "stupid method" to leave the solar system. How to do it specifically?

It is conceivable that in the future, if the technology of human beings is sufficiently developed, they can greatly increase their lifespan by modifying and editing genes, or even achieve immortality, or they can crack the secret of human consciousness and upload consciousness to machines. Long interstellar flight is not a problem at all.

However, like superluminal speed and wormholes, these technologies are also illusory, and whether they can be realized is still a huge question mark. The author believes that in fact, the more feasible methods should be the following two.

1. Sleeping cabin

Many organisms on the earth are dormant. When they are in a dormant state, the body's metabolism will drop to a very low level. The life activities of some organisms can even enter a state of stagnation, and they will wake up when the environment is suitable. Therefore, after humans master the hibernation technology in the future, they can greatly reduce the consumption of oxygen, food, space and energy during the journey, so as to carry out long-term interstellar flight.

2. Generation ships

To put it simply, a generation ship is a huge, completely self-sufficient spaceship, which can accommodate a large number of humans to survive in it for a long time, and can also collect available substances along the way to replenish, so in the generation ship, human beings Interplanetary flights can be carried out from generation to generation until they finally reach their destination.

summary

On the basis of human's existing technology, it only takes time to realize the "sleep capsule" and "generation spacecraft". That is to say, even if there is no superluminal speed and wormholes, human beings will not be trapped in the solar system forever. , through the "stupid method" of "conquering distance with time", human beings can still realize the dream of stars and seas.

Besides, in about 5 billion years, the sun will transform into a huge red giant star, and there will be powerful helium flashes from time to time. At that time, the solar system will no longer be suitable for human existence, so whether human beings want it or not, it must be Find a way to get out of the solar system before all this happens.