The overwhelmingly calm sight of the starry night sky has led many of us to ponder our existence as a standalone species, alone in the entire galaxy or universe. Aliens have always held a special place in our collective consciousness as both heralds of a great new future and harbingers of planetary doom.
As the search for extraterrestrial life continues, the Laboratory of Statistical Biophysics at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland recently carried out new research, recently published in the Astronomical Journal, coming up with an explanation for the stark silence humanity has received in spite of sending out numerous radio transmissions with the sole aim of detecting alien life into outer space multiple times for over 60 years now.
Scientists have also claimed that we might not find alien transmissions toward Earth for at least 60 more years.
The explanation for extraterrestrial silence
Biophysicist Claudio Grimaldi, a guest scientist for EPFL associated with the research, explained that Earth could be in a bubble devoid of radio waves emitted by alien life forms. He added that there is still a lot of unexplored space and that it’s possible that not many alien transmissions have come into contact with scientists.
Emphasizing the need for patience, the biophysicist also mentioned the requirement for further monetary assistance and research efforts to scan and spot the traces of alien communications going unnoticed in the universe.
Research models and previous extraterrestrial signals
FRBs are fast radio bursts of undiscovered origin in deep space, billions of light years away, emitting extremely strong but very short-lived pulses of very high intensity. Since 2007, many new repeating pulse sources have been discovered and are still under investigation regarding their origins and constituents.
The research model showed that there has been a presumption that there is at least one electromagnetic signal of technological origin in the Milky Way and that Earth has been in a quiet bubble (or sponge pore) for at least 60 years, despite the ongoing discussion about the futility of research grants, money, and resources in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).
If that is the case, then statistically speaking, there are no more than five electromagnetic emissions in our galaxy every century. Or, in other words, they occur in the Milky Way about as frequently as supernovae, according to sources.
Before we detect an alien transmission, he estimates that it could take at least 60 years. There is a possibility that electromagnetic signals from extraterrestrial transmissions are absent in the only space where we discovered the way to use radio telescopes. To the scientist, this hypothesis sounded more plausible than the well-known one about our inability to detect signals in spite of being bombarded by different types of alien signals for communication with Earth.
The search continues
Grimaldi emphasized that a lot of space still remains to be explored in our galaxy itself. The best course of action, according to his advice, is to conduct commensal investigations, which involve looking for signals in the data gathered by telescopes that are used for a variety of purposes rather than using telescopes specifically to look for extraterrestrial communications.
The biophysicist believes that the search must continue using the previous strategy used by the SETI community, which involved using information from other astrophysical studies to detect radio emissions from other stars or galaxies to see if they contained any technosignals. This strategy should become the norm going forward.
