Reading: Nasa scientist gives theory on why aliens haven’t contacted us yet

Nasa scientist gives theory on why aliens haven’t contacted us yet

Last updated: 2025/10/28 at 7:13 PM

News Room Published 28 October 2025

Aliens may be bored of trying to find us. At least that’s what one Nasa scientists thinks. The theory suggests that despite popular beliefs, the extraterrestrial beings might be using technology that is similar to our own and therefore just cannot detect humans – and that’s why they haven’t reached out to us yet (Picture: Getty)

The theory is known as ‘radical mandanity’. The new paper looks at explanations for why there is a lack of evidence of technology-using extraterrestrials civilisations (ETCs) in the galaxy, which is known as the Fermi paradox. Some of the explanations to describe the Fermi paradox range from humanity locked up in a celestial zoo to aliens transcending to unrecognisable forms (Picture: Getty)

The Drake equation states there should be many civilisations near enough and capable enough to get in contact with us, and it attempts to estimate the chances of coming into contact with intelligent life. However, Dr Robin Corbet, who is based at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center, suggests that there are a modest number of civilisations in the Milky Way but ‘none have achieved technology levels sufficient to accomplish large-scale astro-engineering or lack the desire to do so’ (Picture: Getty)

Dr Corbet says that ETCs could send out a high-powered beacon or probes that could contact other civilisations but that would require a huge amount of power and would take millions or even billions of years to receive a response. He says this means that there is little motivation to use the technology, and therefore aliens have given up trying to make contact with us (Picture: Getty)

Dr Corbet also said that Earth is probably seen as ‘a boring place’ if there are a reasonable number of ETCs in the galaxy, which means that there is little chance of an alien invasion. The senior scientist says there is a ‘reasonable chance’ we could make contact with ETCs, but believes the detection may be a little disappointing as it would not lead to much advancement in our technology level (Picture: Getty)

He told The Guardian: ‘The idea is that they’re more advanced, but not much more advanced. It’s like having an iPhone 42 rather than an iPhone 17. This feels more possible, more natural, because it’s not proposing anything very extreme’ (Picture: Getty)

He wrote in his paper: ‘This consideration also leads to the expectation that no ETC will colonise a large fraction of the Galaxy, even using robotic probes, and that there are no long-duration high-power beacons. However, there is a reasonable chance that we may make contact on a short, by historical standards, timescale. This event would be momentous, but could still leave us slightly disappointed’ (Picture: Getty)

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