Prominent Physicist Thinks We'll Contact Aliens Within A Century

Soon or later, aliens will reveal themselves to those of us on Earth, right? In fact, depending on who you talk to, there may actually even be a Galactic Federation already in place. According to one prominent physicist, humans could make contact with extraterrestrial contact within the next hundred years or so. In a recent interview in support of his new book The God Equation, string theorist Michio Kaku revealed he believes humans will make contact with another advanced species at some point within the next hundred years.

When that contact does come, however, Kaku advises those to err on the side of caution so as to avoid any conflict or intergalactic wars.

"Soon we'll have the web [sic] telescope up in orbit and we'll have thousands of planets to look at, and that's why I think the chances are quite high that we may make contact with an alien civilization," Kaku tells The Guardian. "There are some colleagues of mine that believe we should reach out to them. I think that's a terrible idea."

He adds, "We all know what happened to Montezuma when he met Cortés in Mexico so many hundreds of years ago. Now, personally, I think that aliens out there would be friendly but we can't gamble on it. So I think we will make contact but we should do it very carefully."

The telescope Kaku talks about is the James Webb Space Telescope built by NASA and the ESA. With upgraded tech and instruments involved, those behind the construction of the telescope believe it could eventually succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as the main NASA mission in the near future.

As of now, the Webb Telescope is expected to launch into orbit this October, and it has cost at least $10 billion to build. According to Northrop Grumman contractor Blake Bullock, the telescope could even act as a time machine of sorts.

"Hubble, when pushed to its maximum, could see galaxies that were teenagers in terms of age. We want to see babies," Bullock previously said in February. "With the Webb, we will be able to see back in time to the earliest objects in the universe for the first time. Also for the first time, we will be able to characterize other planets going around other stars, distant exoplanets, and see if there are oceans, an atmosphere, what chemical elements are there."

Theoretically, that means finding additional planets capable of hosting life could lead to eventual extraterrestrial contact. Hopefully, they just arrive in peace.

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