Astronomers Discovered Cosmic ‘Superhighways’ for Fast Travel Through the Solar System (Video)

Astronomers Discovered Cosmic ‘Superhighways’ for Fast Travel Through the Solar System (Video)

Researchers have discovered a new superhighway network to travel through the Solar System much faster than was previously possible. Such routes can drive comets and asteroids near Jupiter to Neptune’s distance in under a decade and to 100 astronomical units in less than a century.

Accordingly, they could be used to send spacecraft to the far reaches of our planetary system relatively fast, and to monitor and understand near-Earth objects that might collide with our planet.

This video shows the global arch-like structure of space manifolds in the Solar System. The map shows the region between the outer edge of the main asteroid belt at 3 AU to just beyond the semi-major axis of Uranus at 20 AU. Orbits located on stable manifolds appear in a lighter color.