The encounter is closer than ever.
Humanity may be able to contact an alien race as early as 2029, according to a recent analysis of deep space radio waves sent from Earth.
Researchers from the University of California’s Berkley and LA campuses compiled a list of stars and planets that are bound to encounter Earth’s signals within the next century while also deducing that the first return message could come as soon as six years from now.
“This is a famous idea from Carl Sagan, who used it as a plot theme in the movie ‘Contact,’” lead researcher Howard Isaacson, a University of California, Berkeley astronomer told Popsci.com.
Researchers are using physics laws to determine how quickly signals blared from NASA’s Deep Space Network could be sent back and several key insights about travel time were found.
A signal sent to Pioneer 10 — a spacecraft that did a Jupiter flyby in 1973 — had the radio transmission reach a dead white dwarf star in 2002. This is the star that, if alien life exists around, could respond to Earth by 2029.
Similar transmissions sent to the 1977-launched Voyager 2 between 1980 and 1983 and made contact with a 24-light-year-away brown dwarf star in 2007. Potential extraterrestrials could respond by the early 2030s, according to the researchers.
The analysis “gives Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence researchers a more narrow group of stars to focus on,” said lead author Reilly Derrick of UCLA.
This new list of stars can be utilized by radio astronomers to listen for signals at predetermined times while also pointing radio telescopes in the direction of said stars.
However, some experts say it’s time to come back to Earth from these lofty ideals.
“If a response were to be sent, our ability to detect it would depend on many factors,” said Penn State astronomer Macy Huston. This would include “how long or often we monitor the star for a response, and how long or often the return signal is transmitted.”
Jean-Luc Margot, another UCLA radio astronomer, who was not involved in the study, thinks it’s also time to remove the tin foil hats.
“Our puny and infrequent transmissions are unlikely to yield a detection of humanity by extraterrestrials,” he said.
“The probability that another civilization resides in this tiny bubble is extraordinarily small unless there are millions of civilizations in the Milky Way.”