New scientific evidence shows that we are not alone in the universe

 Measured from edge to edge, the universe spans 93 billion light-years. That unfathomable expanse contains 2 trillion galaxies, each shining with millions of stars and dotted with more planets than you can imagine. Given the huge space, it seems that we are not alone. However, throughout human history, we have found nothing to suggest otherwise.

Scientists who have spent their careers looking for any sign of another world civilization recognize that it is possible to have the cosmos just for us. However, they doubt this is the case. "To say that it is the only place where there is information is hubris of a very high order," says astrophysicist Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute. (The acronym means "the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.") Statistically speaking, there are too many locations where life could thrive for humanity to be an anomaly. Astronomer Frank Drake suggested the same in 1961. He believed that the number of technologically advanced civilizations in our galaxy would be the product of seven variables. These include the number of stars along the Milky Way, how many of these bright, burning balls illuminate the planets, and what percentage of those worlds could sustain life. His eponymous equation was a thought exercise meant to start a discussion between colleagues, but it helped to frame the subject in the years since he wrote it.

Many of Drake's variables are speculative, which makes mathematics more than conjecture. But astronomers now know for sure that exoplanets, many of them that could harbor life, are forming all over the Milky Way like dust bunnies under the couch. In the last two decades, researchers have confirmed the existence of more than 4,000 planets in our galaxy, a finding that suggests the cosmos, apart from them. Astrophysicist Christopher Conselice of the University of Nottingham puts the number at 100 quintessences. This is one with 20 zeros. Some believe that there can be much more than that. Scientists are debating how many of these planets could host life, but a common estimate suggests that 20% of the 250 billion stars in the Milky Way may shine on rocky worlds temperate enough to allow liquid water. Do your math and look at the tens of billions of Goldilocks planets in our neighborhood alone, where life's tools could begin to grind. Couldn't mean he did, of course. However, many astronomers say that the complex biochemistry that created intelligent beings on Earth has certainly occurred several times in 13.7 billion years, given tens of billions of opportunities to do so in a the only galaxy in trillions. To suggest otherwise the defiance of physics and the principle of mediocrity, which states that, in terms of probability, our solar system is more likely a common event than a rare beast. "I think the universe takes on life," says Sara Seager, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Italian physicist Enrico Fermi asked this question in 1950, and many scientists have risen in this regard. They argue that there must be planets older than Earth and that at least one extraterrestrial society would be advanced enough to possess a technology that would warn us of its presence - which is what astronomers mean by "intelligent life". This means that anyone beyond our solar system wants to get in touch. Extraterrestrial beings could sit down to avoid attracting interstellar beats. They may lack the technology to greet us or we may not yet have the means to hear them ringing (or understand the message). Anyone could be so far away that I didn't get their signal. It is possible that this large blue marble is an astronomical background that no one else finds interesting enough to disturb the check. It is also believed that other civilizations have already come and gone, wiped out by a cosmic event, catastrophes of their own making or simply the passage of time. In this case, we will probably find evidence of their existence one day. But many astronomers believe that there is a much more logical reason why I have not found anyone: space is too spacious. For all our searches, we did not look far beyond our neighborhood. Retired astronomer Jill Tarter, a 40-year veteran of extraterrestrial intelligence and the emeritus research department at the SETI Institute, likes to use an analogy: If you imagine all the places we could look for life and all the ways we could we could do like the world's oceans, we just examined a cup of water. Others in her field are more generous; they say I filled a small pool.

It's about to go a little deeper. On a high, arid plain, about 400 miles northeast of Cape Town, South Africa, a series of 64 ancient white antennae called MeerKAT colleagues deep in space. This type of research generates amazing amounts of data. By 2020, a supercomputer should start analyzing it for even the weakest electronic signal that suggests someone is there. Astronomers hope to study 1 million stars in five years, about 1,000 times more than any project before it. "There's a chance we'll see a signal that we're going to make a detection," says the University of California, Berkeley astronomer Andrew Siemion, who is leading the project. He and his colleagues can still find evidence that they are sure it exists there, waiting to be discovered.