G8_ Are We Alone?_Approaching_03

Now consider how long it takes light just to reach our nearest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri. This journey, at the speed of light, would take almost four years to complete. Imagine you had an alien friend living on a space station in the Proxima Centauri system. If you sent them a text message, you would not get a response for eight years. It’s hard to imagine that it would take a little over four years for a signal to reach them. It would then take the same amount of time to send a return signal. It’s a good thing your friend lives relatively close. Imagine if they lived on the other side of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Our galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, spans around 100,000 light years. The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy. It is over 110,000 light years away.  To send a message just across the Milky Way Galaxy would take about 100,000 years. It would then take another 100,000 years to get a response. 

That’s assuming there is intelligent life. Think about that: to find out if there is intelligent life on the other side of the Milky Way would take 200,000 years. Using this method would be like throwing a ball over a high fence and waiting to see if anyone would throw the ball back. Instead of trying to actively communicate, a group of scientists are now merely listening.