There could be more than 30 alien
civilizations in the Milky Way, shocking study says
By Chris Ciaccia | Fox News
If extraterrestrial civilizations
exist, we may not have to go too far to find them.
A new study from researchers at
the U.K.'s University of Nottingham suggests there are 36 planets in the Milky
Way galaxy, a calculation the experts have dubbed "the Astrobiological
Copernican Limit."
“The classic method for
estimating the number of intelligent civilizations relies on making guesses of
values relating to life, whereby opinions about such matters vary quite
substantially," the study's lead author, Tom Westby, said in a statement.
"Our new study simplifies these assumptions using new data, giving us a
solid estimate of the number of civilizations in our Galaxy."
“There should be at least a few
dozen active civilizations in our Galaxy under the assumption that it takes 5
billion years for intelligent life to form on other planets, as on Earth,”
University of Nottingham professor Christopher Conselice added.
The researchers found that there
were limits for finding intelligent life, including the average lifespan of a
civilization, which can be less than 1,000 years, as well as the age of the
planet and what the host star is comprised of.
"Furthermore, the likelihood
that the host stars for this life are solar-type stars is extremely small and
most would have to be M dwarfs, which may not be stable enough to host life
over long timescales," the researchers wrote in the study's abstract.
The research has been published
in The Astrophysical Journal.
If such a civilization were to
exist, the closest one would be 17,000 light-years away, which the researchers
noted would make the ability to find and communicate with them "very difficult,"
given the state of our technology.
"It is also possible that we
are the only civilization within our Galaxy unless the survival times of
civilizations like our own are long," the researchers added in the
statement.
One light-year, which measures distance
in space, is the equivalent to about 6 trillion miles.
Should humanity find the presence
of extraterrestrial civilizations, it could be like looking into our future,
both good and bad, Conselice argued.
"If we find that intelligent
life is common then this would reveal that our civilization could exist for
much longer than a few hundred years, alternatively if we find that there are
no active civilizations in our Galaxy it is a bad sign for our own long-term
existence," Conselice explained. "By searching for extraterrestrial
intelligent life -- even if we find nothing -- we are discovering our own
future and fate."
A separate study published in
mid-May suggested that not only is the "universe teeming with life,"
but that it's "the favored bet."
In March, a separate study
theorized finding life in the universe "could be common," when taking
into account how life's building blocks spontaneously form throughout the
universe.
In February, the SETI Institute
announced they are working on new techniques to spot
"technosignatures" that could potentially indicate the presence of an
advanced civilization. Technosignatures are defined as "potentially
detectable signatures and signals of the presence of distant advanced
civilizations," according to NASA.
In September 2018, the $200
million Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) found its first exoplanet,
and in April 2019, it found its first Earth-sized planet.
More than 4,000 exoplanets have
been discovered by NASA in total, approximately 50 of which were believed to be
potentially habitable as of September 2018. They have the right size and the
right orbit of their star to support surface water and, at least theoretically,
to support life.
