In 1957, mankind’s first artificial satellite was successfully launched. From this day on, it marked the official development of mankind from the earth age to the space age. When human beings have the initial ability to get out of the earth, they are full of infinite actions for the vast and mysterious universe.
Only when we have truly stepped out of the earth can we know how vast and mysterious the universe is. In the depths of the dark and cold endless void under the vision of mankind, we do not know how many secrets are hidden. In the exploration of the secrets of the universe, one thing that humans want to understand most is whether there are intelligent life and intelligent civilization like human beings in the universe.
In the earth age, we are not alone, there are 7 billion people living together. But when we stepped out of the earth and began to explore the universe, 7 billion people, no matter what kind of race they were, belonged to human civilization together. Human civilization is lonely in the current universe. Before we discovered alien civilization, human beings existed alone.
So does alien civilization exist? Maybe before we get out of the earth, many people will have doubts about this. But when we truly recognize the vastness of the universe, this knowledge changes fundamentally. Let’s not say whether there will be alien civilizations in the vast universe, just take the galaxy where the solar system is located.
The diameter of the entire Milky Way has reached more than 150,000 light-years. In this scale of space, there are at least hundreds of billions of star systems. Each star system has a varying number of planets. Therefore, the number of planets in the Milky Way has at least reached Trillion level. Among so many planets, a large part are terrestrial planets, and the number is at least hundreds of billions.
Among the hundreds of billions of terrestrial planets, even if there is a very small probability that a beautiful ecological planet like the earth will be born, the number is not a small number. Although life on different planets has different requirements for the environment, the probability of being born on a beautiful ecological planet like the Earth is undoubtedly higher.
Therefore, from the perspective of the Milky Way, there is an alien civilization in the Milky Way. And the Milky Way is just a dust in the vast universe, and there are alien civilizations in the Milky Way, so the number of alien civilizations in the vast universe is bound to be a number that we can’t even imagine. If there are countless intelligent civilizations in the universe, how do we find them?
There are two main ways to search for alien civilizations. One is to send a spacecraft directly to the observed target planet. In this way, it is easy to figure out whether there are intelligent life on the planet. However, this method is still too far away for the current human beings. We must know that we cannot even land on Mars, our neighbor of the earth, let alone land on planets in the distant starry sky outside the solar system.
Therefore, only the second way is left to make it possible for us to discover alien civilizations. The second way is to receive radio signals from alien civilizations that may exist in the universe. If a civilization develops to the stage of technology and has even become a powerful interstellar civilization, then the alien civilization will also be interested in whether there are other intelligent civilizations in the universe.
Since the universe is too big or the alien civilization has no ability to carry out interstellar navigation like human beings, then the alien civilization may also take the initiative to send a wireless pulse civilization signal to the universe, hoping that other civilizations can receive such signals, knowing Their existence. Humans have also sent strong radio signals to the universe, and they also hope that an alien civilization can receive human signals.
At the beginning of 2019, Canadian scientists claimed to have received radio signals from 1.5 billion light-years away. This signal repeated five times in just over half a year. Regardless of the strength of the signal, the direction of the signal, and the regularity of the signal, this is not an ordinary signal. Many scientists believe that this is a strong impulse signal sent by alien civilization to humans.
It may be said that 1.5 billion light-years are such a long distance, and the fastest speed of radio signals is only the speed of light, so it took 1.5 billion years for this signal to travel in the universe before it came to Earth. If so, does this civilization still exist? Perhaps in the eyes of many people, this signal has traveled 1.5 billion years in the universe before reaching the earth.
However, let us not forget that the power of science and technology is infinite, and that the fastest radio signal can only achieve the speed of light is the cognition under the existing technology of mankind. We can imagine that if human beings become an interstellar civilization and travel between different galaxies, is it possible to communicate with radio at the speed of light? The answer is impossible.
For interstellar civilization, the speed of light communication is too backward. Just imagine that the human expeditionary fleet is in danger 100 light years away and needs us to rescue. But if the speed of light radio signal is used for communication, it takes 100 for the distress signal to reach the earth. Time of year. At that time, does it still make sense for humans to rescue them? It doesn’t make any sense anymore.
Therefore, the communication technology in the interstellar age must be faster than the speed of light. Even if the distance is hundreds of light-years, thousands of light-years or even tens of thousands of light-years away, it can communicate in a very short period of time, even real-time. communication. Therefore, if the wireless pulse signal received by human beings 1.5 billion light-years away is really sent by an advanced alien civilization, it may not have traveled in the universe for 1.5 billion years. It is possible that this signal has only come to the earth. It took several years or even less time.
Of course, until now, scientists have still been unable to decipher the specific consciousness of this signal. We can only make various conjectures about this signal before we truly decipher it, and we still cannot really determine that it is a signal from an advanced civilization. It is possible that it is only a signal from celestial bodies in the depths of the universe 1.5 billion light-years away.
Because there are many collision events and explosion events in the universe, such as the collision and melting of black holes, the collision of neutron stars, and the explosion of supernovae, they can all find strong pulse signals. It’s just that, generally speaking, scientists rarely receive strong pulse signals that are repeated multiple times. Once such a signal appears, we tend to think about the direction of alien civilization.
Because the wireless pulse signal sent by a smart civilization must be very different from the signal sent by celestial bodies in the universe. If the signal received by scientists from 1.5 billion light-years away is sent by an advanced civilization, it is possible for humans. It’s not good news. Hawking’s worries may be realized.
We all know that Hawking is a famous cosmologist in modern times, and he has his own unique insights into alien civilization. Hawking has publicly stated on many occasions that if the earth receives a signal from a distant civilization, mankind must never respond. If you respond, it may bring huge disasters to mankind and the earth.
Perhaps the extraterrestrial civilization sends out a strong wireless pulse signal to release bait. If a civilization responds, then the planetary coordinates of this civilization will be exposed, and it may be colonized and invaded by the alien civilization. The more powerful the human science and technology, the more and more awe of the universe, especially for the possible existence of powerful alien civilizations, we should be more vigilant.