God Not Found

Science => Astronomy/Cosmology => Topic started by: Unbeliever on October 23, 2015, 02:49:51 pm

Title: The likeliest reasons why we haven’t contacted aliens are deeply unsettling
Post by: Unbeliever on October 23, 2015, 02:49:51 pm
The likeliest reasons why we haven't contacted aliens are deeply unsettling (http://www.techinsider.io/why-aliens-have-not-contacted-humans-2015-9)

QuoteEven on the clearest, darkest night far from city lights, you can see only about 1% of the Milky Way galaxy's 100 billion to 400 billion stars.

Here's the real trip though: For every star in the Milky Way, there's a unique galaxy drifting through the universe, each with its own billions of stars, and approximately one planet orbiting each of those stars. That's billions and billions and billions of worlds.

And yet decades' worth of missions by Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), an organization which listens for signs of life in space, have come up completely empty handed. Every. Single. One.

Physicist Enrico Fermi is famous for posing the natural question that follows: Where is everybody? The scale of the universe and basic math tell us alien life must be common, yet there's no evidence for it.

Welcome to the Fermi paradox.

Title: Re: The likeliest reasons why we haven’t contacted aliens are deeply unsettling
Post by: The Professor on November 19, 2015, 06:28:06 am
Do we have enough data now to project that, on average, stars have about one planet?