A concentrated beam of particles and photons could push us toward Proxima Centauri

Illustration of the diffraction problems with particle-photon beams, and how a “self-guided” combined beam continues to provide pushing force even to distant probes. Credit: Limbach & Hara Getting to Proxima Centauri b will require a lot of new technologies, but there are increasingly exciting reasons to do so. Both public and private efforts have been … Read more