With a miniaturised space probe capable of accelerating to a quarter of the speed of light, we could reach Alpha Centauri, the nearest star, in 20 to 50 years. However, without a mechanism to slow it down, the space probe could only collect data from the star and its planets as it zoomed past. A theoretical physicist at Goethe University Frankfurt has now examined whether interstellar spacecraft can be decelerated using “magnetic sails.”