Humanity is first and ONLY intelligent species in universe, researchers claim
Extraterrestrials may NEVER communicate with our civilisation - because we'll all be dead by the time they get in touch
Humanity may be the first intelligent species in the universe and might have to wait a long time to communicate with extraterrestrials, astronomers have claimed.
Two separate pieces of research have suggested our civilisation evolved at the "very beginning of a long era"; in which stars have evolved to the right size to let life evolve on planets orbiting them.
We may be just 0.1% of the way through this "life-supporting period", meaning aliens may be extremely primitive and unable to communicate with us.
Academics from Oxford University have published a paper which suggests the "necessary elements of life", such as carbon and oxygen, developed tens of millions of years after the Big Bang.
They also found that the sort of small stars which support life are likely to glow for trillions of years, meaning we "may be too early" to get in touch with aliens.
Dr Rafalel Alves Batista, from Oxford University's department of physics, said: "The main result of our research is that that life seems to be more likely in the future that it is now."
In a separate piece of research, David Haussler of the University of California set out to explore whether civilisations like our own would inevitably destroy themselves just before managing to get in touch with aliens.
He performed complex mathematics to decide the "odds for an enlightened rather than a barren future" and suggested humanity could be in for a treat if we don't destroy ourselves.
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"You should expect a future in which most species communicate with other species across interstellar distances, are thus enlightened as to their place among other alien civilisations, and carry that enlightenment to other future evolving species," Hausller wrote.
"We don’t have answers about the future fate of life, we do have hints, and these hints suggest there may be something extraordinary to come."
He said the early universe was characterised by "catastrophic events" which "periodically sterilised parts of the galaxy of primitive life".
This means "intelligent life was unlikely to have been able to evolve anywhere in the universe much earlier than it did on Earth".
The academic added: "These catastrophic events are currently subsiding, so we may [see an era where the galaxy is] united by interstellar communication and a shared advanced intelligence."
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