--- title: "Elon Musk Expresses Interest in Planet Four Light-Years Away" description: "Out with the Old He hasn't even made it to Mars yet, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk already has his eyes on a new exoplanet to colonize. Over the weekend, Musk seemed to ideate on the prospect of visiting the relatively nearby Promixa Centauri B, an exoplanet that sits a little over four light-years away […]" date: "2023-06-13" modified: "2023-06-13" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-interest-nearby-planet" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Off-World" - "Space" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "alpha centauri b" - "elon musk" - "Exoplanets" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Expresses Interest in Planet Four Light-Years Away ![He hasn't even made it to Mars yet, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk already has his eyes on a new exoplanet to colonize: Proxima Centauri B.]() *\Image: Ludovic Marin via Getty / Futurism\* ## Shiny New Planet He hasn't even [made it to Mars]() yet, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's wandering eye is already on a new planet — this one completely outside our star system. Over the weekend, Musk seemed to ideate on the prospect of visiting the *relatively* nearby Promixa Centauri B, an exoplanet that sits a little over four light-years away in [Alpha Centauri](), the star system that James Cameron's "Avatar" franchise is based on. First discovered back in 2016, Proxima B is believed to be particularly viable as a potentially life-supporting world, and it looks like Musk is paying attention. "Practically next door," [the Twitter owner tweeted on Sunday](), [in response to a tweet]() featuring a *Space Academy* blog post about the tantalizing planet. Of course, Musk's SpaceX would actually have to make a Starship that [doesn't explode before reaching orbit]() to eventually be able to mine Centauri B for [unobtanium]() — pardon, to peacefully explore — but we digress. It's good to keep on dreamin'. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1668046721744527362 ## Going the Distance It's worth noting that while Proxima B is fairly close to Earth on the grander cosmic stage, it's not exactly close by human standards. By mere Earthly measurements, the promising exoplanet sits over 2,3510,000,000,000 miles away. In plain English, that's a good twenty-three trillion five hundred ten billion miles. Mars, by contrast — which we've still yet to put a human on — is about 195.45 million miles away from us. ## Maybe One Day Regardless of its distance, however, Proxima B *is* promising. It sits in [what NASA calls on its website]() the "habitable zone" away from its star, Proxima Centauri, where it's believed that liquid water would pool, rather than freeze or evaporate. But that said, according to NASA, the much-studied exoplanet is believed to experience "bouts of extreme ultraviolet radiation hundreds of times greater than Earth does from the Sun," which may well prove to limit how habitable the exoplanet really is. Even so, scientists — and the [ever-happy-to-populate-planets]() SpaceX leader, apparently — remain intrigued. But only for research purposes, of course. No mining bots here. **More on exoplanets:** [*James Webb Telescope Detects Mysterious Water Vapor Around Alien Planet*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()