2 ms·
Scientists say most likely number of contactable alien civilisations is 36
- Amorymeltzer 6y agoLink to the paper (behind a paywall): https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ab8225 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ab8225 Per the abstract: >[T]here should be at least 36 (+175,-32) [communicating extra-terrestrial intelligent (CETI)] civilizations within our Galaxy: this is a lower limit, based on the assumption that the average lifetime, L, of a communicating civilization is 100 yr (since we know that our own civilization has had radio communications for this time). If spread uniformly throughout the Galaxy this would imply that the nearest CETI is at most 17,000 (+33,600,-10,000 lt-yr away and most likely hosted by a low-mass M-dwarf star, likely far surpassing our ability to detect it for the foreseeable future, and making interstellar communication impossible.
- eindiran 6y agoI'd be interested to know if the paper discusses how many civilizations they expect to exist in the Milky Way under the Weak Astrobiological Copernican scenario. On an unrelated note, I laughed pretty hard about the headline: The conclusion of the article - supposing that there are 36 CETI civilizations in our galaxy, then we are probably far enough away from them that interstellar communication is impossible for the foreseeable future. The conclusion of the headline editor: SCIENTIST SAYS that we can communicate with 36 ALIEN civilizations RIGHT NOW!!!!