Space

Pluto was discovered in 1930.Nearly a century later, it still hasn’t completed a single orbit around the Sun. And it won’t finish that first full “year” until 2283 — roughly 153 years from now. That single fact is simple, almost casual, yet profoundly unsettling once you sit with it. Entire civilizations rise and fall faster than Pluto moves through one season of its long, cold journey. Empires collapse. Languages disappear. Technologies transform the planet. And Pluto? It keeps drifting, patiently, silently, untouched by urgency. If you ever wanted a reason to feel small — not insignificant, but finite — Pluto offers it without saying a word. What a “Year” Really Means at the Edge of the Solar System A year is something we feel. Birthdays, calendars, aging, memory. On Earth, ...

or centuries, humanity has looked to the stars and wondered: could we ever live on another world? While Mars and the Moon remain near-term goals, scientists and engineers are already sketching out visionary concepts that look far beyond our solar system. One of the most ambitious ideas is the interstellar generation ship—a massive spacecraft designed to carry thousands of people on a journey spanning decades or even centuries to reach another star. Recently, scientists unveiled a conceptual design for such a vessel, aimed at transporting up to 2,400 humans to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth, specifically to Proxima Centauri B. This rocky exoplanet, orbiting in its star’s habitable zone, has long been a tantalizing target for interstellar exploration. Though still highly t...