We live in an era when humanity is making ever greater leaps in the study of the universe. And since it could not be otherwise, many are wondering: “Will we find and interact with intelligent life beyond Earth?“According to a new study, this could take about 400 thousand years!

Scientists Wenji song and Hey GaoChinese from Beijing Normal University, analyzed the possibilities according to the possible position of extraterrestrial civilizations, the number of stars in our galaxy and, mainly, the distance.

The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, is based on a well-known astronomical number called The equation in Drakewhich estimates how many populations with Intelligent extraterrestrial communication (CETI) exist in the galaxy.

The authors started with a paper with a method that predicted 36 putative civilizations in Through lactic and suggested new numbers. To get them, they calculated how many of these planets would be habitable and at what stage of their stars CETI could be born.

Thus, Song and Gao came up with two scenarios: the first showed that if a star must have at least 25% of life for this type of civilization to arise, then there will be more than 42 thousand people in our galaxy, given the total number of stars – almost 400 billion – and their compatibility.

For us to be able to communicate with only one of them on a two-way basis, it would take something like two thousand years, a very short time on a spatial scale.

The second scenario considers the possibility that a star would need to be 75% of its life in order for CETIs to occur: this would reduce them to 111 and increase the association time to the 400,000 years that we and our “neighbors” want to associate with. we should at least hold out.

A long wait will give not only the possibility of the existence or absence of civilization, but also the distance. The nearest exoplanet outside the solar system is called next Centaurus b – this is 4.2 light years from Earth, that is, if we could travel at the speed of light, we would get there 4.2 years.

Think if we discovered a planet with CETI at a distance of 100,000 light years: we would observe it as it was 100,000 years ago, by the time the light reaches us, and any message would have this “gap” equivalent to distance.

Add that to the Milky Way’s 120,000 light-year diameter, and you can get an idea of ​​the astronomical distances (literally) associated with exploring and trying to contact other civilizations through space. No wonder Song and He Gao’s score is so high.

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Source: KanalTech