If an individual is misplaced within the wilderness, they’ve two choices. They will seek for civilization, or they might make themselves simple to identify by constructing a fireplace or writing HELP in massive letters. For scientists within the query of whether or not clever aliens exist, the choices are a lot the identical.
For over 70 years, astronomers have been scanning for radio or optical alerts from different civilizations within the seek for extraterrestrial intelligence, known as SETI. Most scientists are assured that life exists on most of the 300 million probably liveable worlds within the Milky Manner galaxy. Astronomers additionally assume there’s a first rate probability some life types have developed intelligence and know-how. However no alerts from one other civilization have ever been detected, a thriller that is known as “The Nice Silence.”
Whereas SETI has lengthy been part of mainstream science, METI, or messaging extraterrestrial intelligence, has been much less widespread.
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