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Starshot … Not? Get a Reality Check on the Search for Alien Civilizations

Fortunately, the real-world search for signs of extraterrestrial civilizations doesn’t have to deal with an alien armada like the one that’s on its way to Earth in “3 Body Problem,” the Netflix streaming series based on Chinese sci-fi author Cixin Liu’s award-winning novels. But the trajectory of the search can have almost as many twists and turns as …

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How Long Will Advanced Civilizations Try to Communicate With Us?

Technosignature research is heating up, with plenty of papers speculating on the nature, and sometimes the longevity, of signals created by technically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. While we haven’t found any so far, that isn’t to say that we won’t, and a better understanding of what to look for would undoubtedly help. Enter a new paper …

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Why Don't We See Robotic Civilizations Rapidly Expanding Across the Universe?

In 1950, while sitting down to lunch with colleagues at the Los Alamos Laboratory, famed physicist and nuclear scientist Enrico Fermi asked his famous question: “Where is Everybody?” In short, Fermi was addressing the all-important question that has plagued human minds since they first realized planet Earth was merely a speck in an infinite Universe. …

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Do Advanced Civilizations Know We're Here?

Although humans have only sent a couple of tentative signals into space, many are concerned about the risks. Should we let alien civilizations know we’re here? According to a new paper, humanity has already been broadcasting its existence for thousands of years, and civilizations with advanced enough technology should be able to observe us. It’s science fiction to us, but megastructure space telescopes could have baselines of millions of kilometers, powerful enough to detect structures on the surface of Earth from thousands of light-years away.

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Astronomers Scan the Center of the Milky Way for Any Sign of Intelligent Civilizations. Nothing but Silence.

Are there civilizations somewhere else in the Universe? Somewhere else in the Milky Way? That’s one of our overarching questions, and an answer in the affirmative would be profound. Humanity’s pursued the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) in one form or another since shortly after the advent of radio waves in the early 20th century. …

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