Of Interstellar Distances

The fastest moving spacecraft humanity has ever sent out to space, New Horizons, had taken nine-and-a-half years to cross the distance between Earth and Pluto. This sure was faster than, for example, Voyager 2 (which took twelve years to get from here to Neptune), however, when talking about an interstellar travel = say, from here to our closest neighbouring Solar System of Proxima Centaury - both are equally much slower than a Snail, and would take dozens of thousands of years to reach it.

Now, let's assume we'd built a spacecraft capable of travelling at 1% of the Speed of Light = meaning: almost three thousand kilometers per second. Just think - a distance close to that which separates Berlin and Tel-Aviv, at one single second.

In (approximately) two minutes, you could get to the Moon; a travel from here to Mars, would be a matter of hours, and from here to Saturn (and its fascinating moon Titan): less than a week.

Within less than three weeks, you might get to the neighbourhood of Neptune and Pluto. Less than three weeks, and you've already crossed the distance, that just a few years ago, would have taken you nearly an entire decade to cross!!

Still: to get from here to Proxima, our closest neighbouring Solar System, this ship shall require more than FOUR ENTIRE CENTURIES, of travelling through (mostly) a complete void, save your occasional comet here or there, every number of years.

THIS is how big Interstellar distances truly are.