Beyond Edges

Our Solar System represents just a tiny fraction of the Galaxy and the whole Universe. Now we know for sure that many stars host planetary systems, starting with our close “neighbor”, Alpha Centauri. However, the first problem on the way to our Universe-wide expansion is getting there in reasonable amounts of time. This can only be done by faster-than-light travel, which, in turn, needs “bypassing” normal space-time. There are some ideas on how we could accomplish these, even if research is still at its beginnings. Until then, thousands of exoplanets were already discovered. Some of them seem to be rather easy to terraform and settle, while others could also be colonized, by using synergistic means of planetary engineering.