Anybody Out There

There was an interesting article on the BBC website about our search for other intelligent life forms that have so far been unsuccessful, but it only has to be a matter of time until one of these searches finds a trace of another inhabited world.

The problem is finding it. New techniques mean that we can now target our searches better than ever before. Selecting and targeting solar systems which have known planets that are within a habitual zone around a star. This should narrow our search and result in a higher probability of success.

Although increased that probability is still however small. The problem is finding another inhabited planet that is at the right stage of development. For example, the earth is around 4.5 billion years old and in that time we have been sending out radio signals for the last 100 years., so unless you hit the right moment in a planets life you would never know anyone was there. The whole thing is a numbers game and with billions of plants around other stars and with millions of them having the possibility of hosting life, it is all about getting the right one.

One thing is for sure, we are going to turn up more negatives than positives on this search, and for that reason it could  take hundreds of years to find the first one. It doesn't mean that they are not out there, more that we haven't found them yet.