Alien-Hunting Group Opens Up About Chances Of Finding Extraterrestrial Life In 2020

Experts involved in the search for extraterrestrial life (SETI) are not confident that discoveries related to this field will be made by next year. But, with the current advances in space technology, they are hoping that humans will eventually come across alien life in the near future.

Modern technology has paved the way for astounding discoveries in space, such as uncovering over 4,000 exoplanets in various star systems. In addition, agencies such as NASA have made huge strides in extending space exploration efforts to reach distant planets.

However, despite these achievements, humans have not yet come across traces of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Even though space agencies have unveiled their plans regarding alien-hunting missions, a group of experts still believe that extraterrestrial life will not be discovered by 2020.

"Well, despite being the widely celebrated 100-year anniversary of the election of Warren G. Harding, 2020 will not likely gain fame as the year we first discover extraterrestrial life," astronomer Seth Shostak of California’s SETI Institute told Space.com.

According to Shostak, agencies will need to go beyond the Solar System in order to detect signs of intelligent life. But, this doesn’t automatically involve sending human expeditions to distant star systems.

Instead, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence should focus on monitoring radio signals and other traces from deep space. These signals can be tracked by special observatories such as the Allen Telescope Array in California, which is about to obtain new receivers for the SETI Institute.

Through these new receivers, the organization is hoping to increase its efforts in detecting alien signals from space.

As explained by Shostak, this concept is similar to what astronomer and early SETI supporter Frank Drake said about Earth’s chances of encountering alien signals. According to Shostak, this kind of search could take decades before it shows positive results.

“One should remember that this type of search is gaining speed in an exponential fashion, and that particular technical fact allows a crude estimate of when SETI might pay off,” he said.

“If we take — for lack of a better estimate — Frank Drake's opinion that there might be 10,000 broadcasting societies in the Milky Way, then we clearly have to examine at least one [million] – 10 million stellar systems to have a reasonable chance of tripping across one,” he added. “That goal will be reached in the next two decades, but certainly not in 2020.”