Home » STUDY: Extraterrestrial Civilizations May Exist in the Milky Way, Researchers Say Many Could Be Dead Already

STUDY: Extraterrestrial Civilizations May Exist in the Milky Way, Researchers Say Many Could Be Dead Already

By  //  December 22, 2020

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intelligent life may have emerged 8 billion years after the Milky Way formed

When haze built up in the atmosphere of Archean Earth, the young planet might have looked like this artist’s interpretation – a pale orange dot. A team led by Goddard scientists thinks the haze was self-limiting, cooling the surface by about 36 degrees Fahrenheit (20 Kelvins) – not enough to cause runaway glaciation. The team’s modeling suggests that atmospheric haze might be helpful for identifying earthlike exoplanets that could be habitable. (NASA Image)

(FOX NEWS) – No one can say for certain whether extraterrestrial civilizations exist, but one new study suggests the Milky Way is full of them, though many could be dead.

The research, which can be read on the arXiv repository, was written by experts at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and Santiago High School in Corona, Calif.

It uses the famous Drake Equation and determined that intelligent life may have emerged some 8 billion years after the Milky Way formed.

“As we cannot assume a low probability of annihilation, it is possible that intelligent life elsewhere in the galaxy is still too young to be observed by us,” the researchers wrote in the study. “Therefore, our findings can imply that intelligent life may be common in the galaxy but is still young, supporting the optimistic aspect for the practice of [search for extraterrestrial intelligence].”

The experts also looked at where other civilizations may live in the universe, noting they are likely to reside on planets in the galactic habitable zone, places in the galaxy where there is an abundance of metals. This could be approximately 13,000 light-years from the galactic center, the researchers noted.

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