Abstract
We investigate the physics of an interstellar journey on board a spaceship with a constant acceleration, in the framework of special relativity. It is in principle possible to cross the Galaxy within a human lifetime. The aspect of the sky seen from the spaceship is severely distorted by relativistic aberration; most of the visible sky shrinks to a small region of strongly enhanced luminance in the direction of motion, leaving the rest of the celestial sphere almost entirely dark. The invisible universe becomes perceptible by the traveler, as the infrared and radio radiations are Doppler-shifted to visible frequencies in the direction of motion. Navigational problems posed by these relativistic effects are examined.
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