In this world, there are very few issues more polarizing than the notion of aliens. For as long as we’ve been recording history, humans have wondered whether we’re alone or not. Now that astronomy has advanced to the point where we know that:
• the other stars in the sky are Suns like our own,
• that at least 80% — and possibly as many as 100% — have planetary systems orbiting them,
• that rocky, Earth-sized planets are common,
• with many possessing the right orbits to have the potential for liquid water and maybe even life on their surface,
• that in our galaxy alone, there are somewhere around 400 billion stars total,
• and that, spread out across the observable Universe, there are approximately 2 trillion galaxies overall.
Given that life has survived, thrived, and evolved into something as complex, differentiated, intelligent, and technologically advanced as human beings here on Earth, it compels one to wonder: are we alone?
And moreover, if we aren’t alone, have technologically advanced aliens already arrived here on Earth? While there haven’t been any definitive extraterrestrials yet discovered here, the presence of UFOs — unidentified flying objects, or as they’ve recently been rebranded, UAPs, for unexplained aerial phenomena — has led some to believe that they may already be here. Yet scientists seem to be disinterested in this line of thought. Why is this the case? Let’s take an in-depth look, from an astronomer’s perspective.
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