Scientists have found out how many years it will take for humanity to detect alien signals

Scientists from the Laboratory of Statistical Biophysics at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have set a date when humanity will be able to detect alien signals.

To answer the question of why, despite all the efforts made, humanity still cannot detect alien signals and when exactly this will happen, scientists have used a model of statistical research on porous sponge materials.

The basic condition for solving the problem was two assumptions: first, there must be at least one electromagnetic signal of technological origin in the Milky Way at any given time, and second, the Earth has been in a «silence zone» for at least 60 years. That is, no alien radio signals have reached the Earth during this time or have remained undetected for some reason.

The calculation of the statistical model is based on the fact that the Earth and alien radio emitters are placed in the «pores» of a conditional sponge. Then, optimistic and pessimistic probabilities of distribution are built. In the best case scenario, if we consider a meeting with an alien intelligence to be positive, we will be able to receive a radio signal from aliens no earlier than 60 years from now. In the worst case, we will have to wait at least 2000 years to register a man-made signal of alien origin.

Of course, the solution to a statistical problem depends on the initial conditions. If they are different, the result will also differ from the one obtained by the scientists. The researchers noted that SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), a project to search for extraterrestrial civilizations, is currently the best solution. «There's no need to spend resources on devices exclusively for searching for alien signals. There is enough information in the stream of ordinary scientific data to find even an alien man-made signal if it gets there,» the scientists summarized.

Published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the study revealed the potential for data leakage about the Earth and people to fall into the hands of alien civilizations. The weak link is cellular towers, whose total power has become the second strongest radio signal on Earth in recent years.

In theory, aliens can listen to our phones and know everything about life on planet Earth. Each cell tower emits relatively little power — from 100 to 200 watts — but together they create a radio signal of several gigawatts. Such a signal can be detected by alien radio astronomy at a distance of up to 10 light years.