The study, recently published on the online repository arXiv, was authored by a team from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and Santiago High School in Corona, California. Using computational models based on years of NASA’s space research data, scientists have determined that approximately 8 billion years after the formation of our galaxy, the Milky Way, it had the capacity to support intelligent life.
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Some potentially habitable planets have been identified – Image: PHL/UPR ARECIBO, based on HUBBLE/ESA/NASA data.
With a presumed age of over 13 billion years, this model suggests that many planets had civilizations billions of years before Earth. To support life, those planets would need to be in a star system located away from the galactic center, where the “monstrous” black hole Sagittarius A* lies dormant, approximately 13,000 light-years away.
Our Earth is situated 25,000 light-years away from this monstrous black hole, so if we had the ability to observe far into the galactic center, we might witness our “cosmic companions.” According to Fox News, the authors’ analysis indicates that one of the reasons extraterrestrial civilizations struggle to find each other is the prevalence of self-destruction. Many studies conducted over the centuries have been revisited and recalculated, showing a significant likelihood of scientific and technological progress leading to “biological annihilation.” It is alarming that our Earth is at risk of following that path.
According to Science Alert, this research could help guide future observations of exoplanets. Over a month ago, another study based on 4,500 exoplanets, identified by NASA and ESA’s “planet hunters,” calculated what is known as the “habitability index” and confirmed that the Milky Way has approximately 300 million potentially habitable planets.
Within the Solar System, there are three bodies in the “habitable zone”: Earth, Venus, and Mars. Recent studies indicate that they were once habitable until unfortunate evolutionary events led to extinction. Another study affirms Earth’s exceptional luck, as certain events in the past, such as a slightly larger “dinosaur-killing asteroid,” could have caused its extinction.