In our galaxy there may exist more than 30 intelligent civilizations

British astrophysicists have calculated that in our galaxy at least 30 intelligent civilizations

When almost 500 years ago, Nicolaus Copernicus, and after Giordano Bruno was subjected to judgment about our place in the Universe is questioned, suggesting the existence of other worlds, they fell the wrath of the Holy Inquisition. The idea that does not revolve around the Earth and in the Universe there are other planets in those years was considered a crime, but today, robotic spacecraft travel through space, and in orbit of our planet people live constantly (talking about the ISS). But despite the opening of more than 4000 exoplanets, we failed to find traces of alien life. But does this mean that we are alone? According to a study by scientists from the University of Nottingham, in our Galaxy there may be more than 30 intelligent civilizations.

Life beyond Earth

When I think about life beyond Earth, I recall the words of the brilliant science fiction writer, sir Arthur Charles Clarke: "two possibilities Exist: either we are alone in the Universe or not. Both are equally terrifying". But even though «the horror», which hides the answer, the search for extraterrestrial life continues. Humanity has managed to learn that the universe is not limited to the Solar system. 200 pictures of thousands of galaxies taken by the Hubble space telescope, cause dizziness, and questions about the nature of things is becoming more and more.

The Scientific method enabled man to go into space, send them to the nearest planets most of these robots, and even send one of them straight to the Sun. Undoubtedly, science is the only way to know the world and the Universe. Recently, British scientists have found that in our galaxy there may be more than 30 alien civilizations. The new work was designed to understand how many planets in our neighborhood may be home to alien life. I note that researchers have assumed that life develops on other planets exactly like Earth.

As the astronomers write in a paper published in the journal , in the milky Way may exist dozens of active civilizations waiting in the wings. Moreover, the work may also shed light on our own destiny and suggests that our prospects for long-term survival is lower than we might think.

In our Galaxy must be at least several tens of active civilizations, if we assume that the formation of intelligent life on other planets, as on Earth, it takes 5 billion years. The idea is to consider the evolution of the scale of the cosmos. We call this computation Astrobiology Copernican principle.

Christopher Consales, Professor of astronomy at the University of Nottingham.

As they say in the paper, the researchers, astrobiology Copernican principle is of two kinds. One of them «weak» principle suggests that intelligent life forms on the planet at any time after 5 billion years. Another «strong» principle suggests that life on planets is formed between 4.5 and 5 billion years ago.

In the milky Way can easily be more than 30 advanced civilizations

In the Netherlands came from «strong» the Copernican principle, and assuming that alien life forms must grow in metal-rich environments. This is because humans evolved near the metal-rich environment for metal that is present in the Sun. As The Independent, previous studies conducted in 2012 suggest acceptable «the minimum number of star metal» required for the formation of planets similar to Earth. The researchers then used assumptions about where may form a life to understand, how many planets in the milky Way will be able to satisfy these conditions.

Note that detection of any civilizations in our galaxy depends strongly on our ability to capture signals sent into space. These include radio and satellite TV. If the developed technological civilization will last as long as ours (but we send into space signals in the past century or so) that scientists estimate that in our Galaxy may exist 36 intelligent civilizations!

will there Be first contact?

So if the authors of the new study is right, then why are we still not received any evidence of the existence of other intelligent life forms? The authors believe that all the matter in space distances – the average distance to any possible existing civilization is 17 000 light-years, which makes communication very challenging. As for other reasons, the answer, alas, is disappointing: we are the only intelligent life in the galaxy, and civilizations die out before they have time to discover.

we All want to believe in this frightening, cosmic void we are not alone

If someday scientists will discover that intelligent life in the Universe common – I recently wrote about this – it will show that our civilization can last much longer than a few hundred years. But if traces of intelligent civilizations to find it does not work, it will mean that the long-term existence of our civilization is not possible.

Anyway, the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life – even if we don't find anything — we learn our own future and destiny.