Why Haven’t We Found Aliens Yet?
Written by: Shakir Ullah
In galaxies, nebulae are massive clouds of gas and dust where stars are born, and around those stars, planets eventually form. Our own Sun was also formed about 5 billion years ago from such a nebula. Orbiting it, at a distance of about 150 million kilometers, lies a planet filled with countless forms of life — Earth. The organisms we see today are the result of natural selection, while many species have gone extinct due to various catastrophes in Earth’s history.
We humans have made mistakes over time, learned from them, and adapted to our environment. And today, we’ve become intelligent enough to understand at least part of the vastness of the universe. This understanding leads us to a profound question:
Are we truly alone in the cosmos?
Project Diana – Our First Message to Space
On January 10, 1946, through Project Diana, we transmitted 111.5 MHz radio waves toward the Moon. Since radio waves travel at the speed of light, they reached the Moon in just over one second and bounced back to Earth in about 2.5 seconds. This experiment proved that radio waves can travel through space and reflect off celestial bodies — opening the door to space communication.
But here’s the interesting part:
Some of those radio waves bounced back, but many others continued traveling into deep space — and they are still traveling today.
Even though their strength weakens over distance and celestial objects like planets or asteroids may absorb or deflect them, these waves don’t disappear entirely — they keep moving through the universe.
Our Signals Are Still Out There
Every day, we’re sending FM radio, radar, and television signals into space. The original Project Diana signals have now likely traveled about 79 light-years, passing by many stars and possibly even their orbiting planets.
Within this 79-light-year radius, several potentially habitable planets have been identified — such as HD 40306, Tau Ceti, and Gliese systems — where liquid water might exist. If any intelligent beings live there and possess extremely sensitive instruments capable of detecting radio waves, they might already have received our signals.
But Why Haven’t We Heard from Them?
Do intelligent civilizations on other planets also send signals we can detect?
Since the 1960s, humans have been monitoring the cosmos for any unusual radio signals — hoping for a meaningful sign. But so far, no such signal has been found that can conclusively be traced to an intelligent alien source.
Maybe other civilizations have sent signals, but we were not looking in the right direction or at the right time. Or perhaps their signals are already around us, but our current technology is too primitive to recognize them.
It’s also possible that alien civilizations consider us too weak or insignificant — just as we view ants or mosquitoes — and thus choose not to contact us. Keep Asking, Keep Searching Despite all this, we must continue our search, advance our science, and keep asking questions.
Who knows — one day, we might truly come face to face with a strange, intelligent lifeform from the star
