How long does it take to travel through the Universe at 1g?

Here on Earth, we constantly experience Earth’s gravity: 1g, or 9.8 m/s².

Astronauts only experience weightlessness once their rocket’s thrusters cease.

As long as there’s acceleration, an astronaut’s experience is indistinguishable from gravity.

Realistically, rockets run out of fuel after 8-10 minutes of acceleration.

With future fuel sources — nuclear fission, fusion, or antimatter — much longer accelerations are achievable.

If a spacecraft never exhausted its fuel, continuously accelerating at 1g, we could go anywhere.

Mars, at closest approach, is attainable after 1 day, 5 hours, and 42 minutes.

We’d reach the Kuiper belt’s end — the Kuiper cliff — after just over 2 weeks.

After 4 weeks, we’d pass Voyager 1: today’s most distant human-made spacecraft.

After 3 months, we’d reach the inner Oort cloud, traveling at 25% the speed of light.

After 1 year and 7 months, we’d depart the outer Oort cloud at 92% light-speed.

After 2 years and 4 months, we’d reach Proxima Centauri.

The galactic center, 26,000 light-years away, requires just under 11 years.

Andromeda, 2.5 million light-years distant, takes 15 cumulative years.

The Coma Cluster, 321 million light-years away, is reachable after 20 years.

All destinations within the observable Universe are achievable in 25 years, maximum.

Mostly Mute Monday tells an astronomical story in images, visuals, and no more than 200 words.

This article is featured on Big Think.