Submitted 3 weeks ago by original_reader@lemmy.zip to astronomy@mander.xyz
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a69138612/where-are-the-aliens-hiding/
We just live too far apart.
Even if another life existed out there at an ideal distance to be receiving our first radio signals now, and they could receive it, and they were at a similar enough technology level…
This would also mean they were ~100LY away, or a 200 year cycle to communicate, once they deciphered our signal.
They wouldn’t receive the signal if they’re at the same tech level. Radiation from our communication tapers off well below background levels at 100ly. Maybe if they got lucky and had very, very sensitive instruments aimed our way at the right moment, they might detect something that didn’t fit background, but our power output pales in comparison to the cosmos.
Just look at all the tricks scientists have to pull to communicate with Voyager, and it’s not even outside of the frigging solar system, yet!
Assuming they are existing at a tech level similar or above to ours at the same time as us.
Yeah with all the time in the universe and how short our civilization has been technological I’m a big fan of the theory that the galaxy is just a big graveyard of civilizations that sprouted and died over the past few billion years. Maybe there’s another few right now dotted around but we’ll never know before we or they die out.
The universe is kinda sad honestly.
Baseless speculation. Might as well say demons are in the earth hiding.
are you crabs yet? 🦀 🦀 🦀
Looks like another journalist just finished reading The Dark Forest
I think they are talking but their voices are actually just too high for us to hear. This is why some dogs can be so skittish at times, because they can hear the aliens saying really mean things about us behind our backs
True things?
No. Aliens are notorious liars. It’s why your dog still loves you.
Or maybe we actually are the first interstellar civilisation. With features like Jupiter and especially our giant ass moon seeming to be pretty rare we still don’t know what it really takes to make a planet habitable. Let alone habitable in such a way that it creates intelligent life.
Shhh…. They’re listening!
One day we’ll be inundated with billions of light years worth of “are you there?” Signals.
Single life forms in the area
Shh! They'll hear us.
rimu@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Population growth compounds, though. Once you’ve colonized a million worlds, the next million would come in a fraction of the time of the first million, and the next 2 million in less time than that, then 4 million in the same time as before, etc. Like grains of rice on a chessboard. Totally feasible to fill a galaxy if FTL travel is achieved.
FaceDeer@fedia.io 3 weeks ago
Yeah, it's really hard for the human brain to intuitively grasp exponential growth. Anyone who says a galaxy is "too big" hasn't actually run the numbers on that.
FTL is in no way necessary to allow for interstellar colonization to proceed.
GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
The number show that with the right technology, meaning ships can accelerate to 0.05c and we can convert asteroid fields to self-sustainable habitats, a civilization could colonize the Milky Way in about 200,000 years. A blink of the eye in cosmological time scales. FTL isn’t necessary, except perhaps for cohesion.
kalkulat@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If FTL is a thing, that’s OK with me, many good stories include it and I’d miss them.