Proxima Centauri is 4 light years away. Ambitious space mission Breakthrough Starshot is developing a way to push spacecraft there at a fifth of the speed of light Space 10 April 2019 Sam Chivers By Gilead Amit IF YOU left Earth now, travelling at the speed of light, you would get to the moon before reaching the end of this sentence. Getting to the sun itself would take 8 minutes at this speed.