According to the astronomy journal IOPScience, a team of scientists from the University of California, USA believe that extraterrestrials will contact Earth as early as 2029.
More than 100 years ago, people used radio waves to communicate with each other all over the Earth. Those waves also leak into space, a sign of our presence spreading through the universe. In recent years, humans have sent stronger signals out to the planet, communicating with the most distant probes, such as the famous Voyager spacecraft.
Recently, scientists traced the paths of these powerful radio signals from Earth to very distant spacecraft and identified which stars, along with any possible planets, could have an exoplanet. alien life around them, are best positioned to intercept those messages.
The team mapped out a list of stars that could catch Earth’s signals over the next century and discovered that alien civilizations (if they’re out there) could send messages that reflect Earth’s signals. as early as 2029. The results of their study were published March 20 in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
It was a famous idea by Carl Sagan, who used it as the theme for the movie Contact, explains Howard Isaacson, a University of Berkeley astronomer and co-author of the study.
As radio waves travel through space, they spread out and become weaker and harder to detect. Aliens near a star may not notice faint leaks from small instruments. However, the commands humans send to probes at the edge of the solar system, such as Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11 and New Horizon, require much more intense and focused broadcasting from NASA’s Deep Space Network – equipment designed for communications in space.
