If humans are willing to wait about twenty-five years, we might get our answer to the question “Does life exist on other planets?” It’s probably worth the wait.
“A researcher for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) says humanity will detect aliens by the year 2040, LiveScience.com reports. That’s because, by then, astronomers will have scanned enough star systems to detect alien-produced electromagnetic signals.”
During a February 6 discussion at the 2014 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts symposium at Stanford University (our invite never came), Seth Shostak of SETI explained “Instead of looking at a few thousand star systems, which is the tally so far, we will have looked at maybe a million star systems.”
Shostak’s cocksureness is based on progress made possible by NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler space telescope. The telescope has uncovered evidence that the Milky Way galaxy is full of worlds fully capable of supporting life similar to ours on Earth.
If this is true, Shostak believes it will be easier to find other life forms because they’ll be doing the same thing NASA does — sending out radio transmissions and listening for an answer on the other end.
“I think we’ll find E.T. within two dozen years using these sorts of experiments,” said Shostak.
Oh, we’re looking for E.T.? I’ll save everyone the trouble, he’s in Spielberg’s attic.
[via Fox News]