New Study Says Aliens Are Waiting for The Right Time to Contact Us

By Adam Barnhardt

Unless you're watching The X-Files or Star Trek, mankind has yet to contact extraterrestrials. As one new study points out, that may be because aliens on other planets are simply waiting for the right time to give us a ring here on Earth. In a new study lead by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute's Sofia Sheikh, the rotations and orbits of the respective planets may play a role in the ability for life in other solar systems to reach out.

"Exoplanetary transits are special because they can be calculated by both us on Earth, as the observers, and also any potential technological species in the exoplanetary system itself, as the transmitters," Sheikh told Live Science. "This strategy helps us narrow down the huge question of where and when to look for a message in the vast reaches of space."

Published in December, Sheikh's study didn't find any direct signs of aliens trying to contact Earth. Nevertheless, scientists will continue to research the topic in hopes of someday making contact.

As part of the study, the team used the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to look for radio signals coming from 12 nearby exoplanets. The exoplanets chosen for the study had the aforementioned "transits" that could help extend the radio signals to Earth.

Out of the 34,000 signals picked up by the study, all but two were dismissed as interference from Earth-bound technology. The two signals captured that the team hopes to study further came from Kepler-1332b and Kepler-842b. That said, Sheikh said in the study even those two signals are "very likely" also because of interference rather than an alien civilization's attempts to reach out.

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