Why aliens haven't made contact yet: scientists put forward a theory

Is there extraterrestrial life? This question has been stirring the imagination of mankind since the moment when earthlings realised how vast the universe is. Decades of research have not found an answer to this question. And the aliens themselves do not seem to be in a hurry to make contact with humanity. A group of scientists from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute may have found an explanation for the silence of extraterrestrial civilisations.

According to Livescience, citing research leader Sophia Sheikh, the aliens may be waiting for a cosmic version of "noon" to send their signal to Earth.

Sheikh's team, which studies exoplanets, uses similar methods to try to catch signals from extraterrestrial civilisations. To do this, they study potentially inhabited planets at the very moment when they, from the Earth's point of view, pass directly in front of their suns.

Sheikh believes that such an exoplanet transit is an ideal chance to pick up a signal from another world.

"Exoplanetary transits are special because they can be calculated by us on Earth as observers, and by any potential technological species in the exoplanetary system itself as transmitters," Sheikh said.

Since such transits are repeated at the same time, scientists can calculate the moment a signal is sent or expected from a particular exoplanet.

Sheikh also explained that this strategy makes it possible not to hunt for an extraterrestrial signal in the vastness of space, but to have a point to search for the message.

Sheikh's team, using the Robert Byrd Telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia (USA), listened to 12 potentially habitable planets in March 2018, detecting a large number of radio signals - almost 34,000 - but 99.6% of them could be immediately dismissed as interference from Earth's communications. The remaining signals were further analysed by a group of scientists. But it's too early to talk about a positive result.

In the end, all but two of the signals were identified as being caused by interference. And only short bursts from Kepler-1332b and Kepler-842b - potentially rocky planets larger than Earth - were deemed worthy of further study. However, Sheikh is not hopeful about these signals either, believing that they are most likely the result of interference rather than genuine messages.

In the future, the scientists plan to continue their research using different telescopes.

As you know, since the end of the 19th century, when radio technology was invented, the Earth has been unintentionally sending its own signals into space, and in 1974, this was also done intentionally when astronomers Frank Drake and Carl Sagan sent a signal into space, known as the Arecibo Message.

Earlier, OBOZREVATEL also talked about the Dark Forest Theory, based on Liu Qixin's science fiction novel The Dark Forest. This theory states that life in the universe is too cautious to seek contact with other intelligent life.

In addition, scientists from NASA suggest that all life in the universe destroyed itself before it reached the level of development to make intergalactic contacts. They assume that humanity will face the same fate.

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