We May Never Hear from Aliens

A number of astronomers and astrobiologists believe that our galaxy, the Milky Way, may be home to a large variety of extraterrestrial organisms, inhabiting other planets in other star systems. But they also believe that we may never be able to communicate or identify these creatures, largely because many of the new “species” may simply not have the technology to do so. In addition, our contact technology may also be unsuitable for this purpose. The SETI initiative is sending signals in space on a daily basis, but there is no way of knowing what worlds these signals reach, Discovery News reports.

When scientists convened in San Diego, California, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), top SETI experts were asked by other researchers when they expect to have concrete results. They responded by saying that time estimates vary widely. Some believe that the contact date has expired more than 10 years ago – in the sense that we should have already established contact, while others say that up to 250 years will have to pass before be become capable of engaging in alien communications.

There are some whose estimates are more balanced, such as expert Seth Shostak. He believes that this goal will be reached in about 25 years. The estimate is based on the fact that the SETI capabilities are growing exponentially at this point, and that advanced telescopes, detection techniques and superior signal processing methods, will continue to develop over this time frame. He argues that the next 24 months will see the SETI signals reaching more stars than they did in the past 50 years, but highlights the fact that the exponential rise in capabilities will not last forever.

“"If we don't have a detection by the year 2035 then something is wrong with our fundamental assumptions,” the expert says. There are people who believe that, if life exists anywhere else in the Milky Way, then it could look significantly different than we do. And they refer to forms of intelligent life, underlining the differences that exist even on our planet, between the two most intelligent life forms – humans and cetaceans. Each is adapted to a different environment, and has evolved the same type of intelligence, but they cannot communicate with each other. Such obstacles are also likely to be met when conducting studies in space.