Life arose on Earth early on, ultimately giving rise to us: clever and technologically superior. “First contact” nonetheless stays elusive.
For those who’ve ever gazed up at a darkish and clear evening sky, you would possibly really feel the identical factor that I do every time: a sense that it’s beckoning us and drawing us in to discover and surprise what’s on the market within the nice abyss of house. Every level of distant, twinkling mild isn’t only a star in its personal proper, but additionally an opportunity: for planets, for biochemistry, and for all times. If we actually enable our imaginations to run wild, we would even think about the existence of one thing higher than mere life, such because the existence of clever, self-aware, and technologically superior civilizations.
However that brings up a query that humanity has obsessed over for generations: If the substances for all times are frequent, and we advanced naturally, then the place is everybody else? It’s some of the generally requested inquiries to astrophysicists, astrobiologists, and alien hunters of all stripes, as individuals regularly surprise not solely concerning the existence of clever extraterrestrials, but when and the way they’ll talk with us and what applied sciences is perhaps wanted to search out them.
