THE POSSIBILITY OF THE EXISTENCE OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL CIVILIZATIONS

Abstract

The authors of the article consider the evolution of human ideas about the existence of extraterrestrial life and the origin of various cosmic phenomena; the problem of «natural / artificial» and the essence of the term «extraterrestrial civilization»; methods of identifying the potential number of civilizations in the universe are analyzed. It has been found that as mankind has explored space, the hypothetical presence of extraterrestrial civilizations has moved farther and farther away from our planet. In the telescope, we observe billions of other galaxies similar to ours, and numerous studies show that planets with similar conditions to Earth also revolve around other stars. The latter are denoted by the term «exoplanet». The American radio astronomer Francis Drake made the first official attempt in history to come into contact with extraterrestrial civilizations, but it did not live up to expectations, because to receive a message and provide a response, creatures must have the necessary equipment. This work is called «Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligents» (Search for extraterrestrial civilizations). Later, astronomers improved the methods and means of search. In 1992, NASA launched the largest program to search for extraterrestrial civilizations in ten years, called SERENDIP - «search for extraterrestrial radiation from neighboring advanced civilizations», the world’s most powerful telescopes are constantly listening to the starry sky in hopes of catching signals from other intelligent. The authors concluded that at this stage, the radiation of terrestrial radio stations has spread to only one thousandth of the radius of our Galaxy, so it can not be detected by alien beings. There is a hypothesis that states that the emergence of intelligent beings is a natural stage in the development of any matter in which the existence of terrestrial civilizations is inevitable, but at this stage there is no official confirmation of their existence. Skeptics claim that humanity is unique and no other civilizations exist or, for reasons unknown to us, life outside the Earth does not have time to develop to a high level, due to adverse environmental conditions. Rapid radio bursts of unknown origin are explained by the fusion of neutron stars, the activity of black holes and other cosmic phenomena of natural origin.