Fermi Explorer team plans to launch a probe that will reach the star system next door … in 80,000 years

Philip Johnston, co-founder and president of the Fermi Explorer Mission, stands on an outcrop in Chile’s Atacama Desert and points at Alpha Centauri in the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. Johnston and his teammates aim to launch a probe by the end of 2029 that would reach Alpha Centauri roughly 80,000 years later. (Photo Credit: Alexis Trigo) A Seattle-area nonprofit group known as the Fermi Explorer Mission today unveiled its plans to send a spacecraft on an 80,000-year trip to the nearest alien