Evan Solomonides, a student from Cornell University, said, in a news release, that humans have not been contacted by aliens so far because the universe is a huge place. However, he still believes that this does not mean that they are not any life form out there.
Solomonides also said that it is possible to hear any time at all, but it becomes likely we will have heard around 1,500 years from now. Until then, it is possible that we appear to be alone – even if we are not. Solomonides’ research was presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting on June 16, in San Diego, California.
Researchers from Cornell University used Fermi Paradox to base their calculations. This paradox explained by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi 66 years ago suggests that Earth should have been visited by aliens a long time ago taking into account that the galaxy has likely billions of Earth-like planets capable to developed intelligent life form.
The calculations estimated that humans will probably be contacted by aliens 1500 from now. Solomonides’ research was paired with Copernicus’ principle of mediocrity which, it is believed that there is not anything special in our planet’s physical attributes to convince aliens enough to visit us.
What do the Fermi paradox and Copernicus’ principle of mediocrity mean in Salomonides’ research?
In a report published in KSL, it is said that to understand how Solomonides arrived at this ‘1,500 years’ figure, firstly it is important to understand a quick physics lesson. There are two theories to take into consideration.
The first is the Fermi paradox, which it is a contradiction that has blown scientists mind as well as the Star Wars’ fans: If the universe is filled with planets similar to Earth (and it is), why haven’t we made contact with aliens yet?
The second is Copernicus’ principle of mediocrity which suggests that the reason why aliens have not contacted us is that there’s probably nothing exceptional or unique about us.
“It’s possible to hear any time at all, but it becomes likely we will have heard around 1,500 years from now. Until then, it is possible that we appear to be alone—even if we are not. But if we stop listening or looking, we may miss the signals. So we should keep looking”, said Salomonides.
Humans have been sending out broadcast signals into space for the last eight decades, in hoping to find life in other plants. NASA has said that messages have spread across 2,326 confirmed exoplanets. Furthermore, broadcast signals have reached every star within about 80 light-years from the Sun – about 8,531 stars and 3,555 Earthlike planets, taking into account that the Milky Way galaxy has 200 billion stars.
According to researchers: “It is actually unlikely that the Earth would have been reached by extraterrestrial communication at this point. We predict that under 1 percent of the galaxy has been reached at all thus far, and we do not anticipate to be reached until approximately half of the stars/planets have been reached. We offer a prediction that we should not expect this until at least 1,500 years in the future.”
According to Solomonides, extraterrestrials may have received signals from our planet. However, he said that aliens might have found these signals undecipherable, and thus they would need to decode the light waves into sounds and parse 3,000 human languages to understand what the message means.
However, for David Kipping, assistant professor of astronomy at Columbia University, who was not part of the researchers’ team, alien life is way broader than just radio and TV broadcast signals. Therefore, this should include a search for extraterrestrial artifacts. He told FoxNews.com that humans don’t have any evidence right now for alien civilizations in the galaxy.
Astronomers have just discovered about 0.125 percent of our Milky Way. Since we have just sent signals for 80 years, scientists suggest that we should give the signals time to spread in half of all the solar systems in the Milky May so aliens could contact us. Although there is also a small portage that life on other planets would understand and deciphers our signals, Solomonides say that we should keep looking, If we stop listening or watching, we may miss the signals.
Breakthrough Starshot hot is looking for extraterrestrial life
In the aim of finding life out of this planet, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner has headed a $100 million Breakthrough Starshot. The Breakthrough Starshot, which is also being supported by Stephen Hawking, will send spacecraft similar to the size of a stamp to Alpha Centauri, the closest neighboring star system to our solar system.
This nano craft will travel at 20 percent of the speed of light, and it is expected to take around 20 years to make the 25 trillion-mile journey from Earth. The tiny spacecraft will include onboard cameras, photon thrusters and communication equipment that will allow it to report back its findings.
Source: Christian Science Monitor