Human kind has been interested in astronomy since its creation. First we started to study different planets, constellations and celestial bodies then we begin to explore our universe step by step with the helps of space telescopes, satellites and observatories. And since the beginning humans asked themselves “Are we cursed with loneliness, or there can be other intelligent life forms that is waiting to be discovered?”
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. “said Neil Alden Armstrong, when he begin to walk on the moon surface for the first time in our history. It was a great victory for humans that time. But let me make you understand how small this step is when we compare it with the size of the universe. To begin, we use lightyear to express astronomical distances, and 1 lightyear is equal to 9.4605284 × 1015 meters. But the distance from Earth to Moon is just 1.3 light-seconds. And with this information, try to comprehend the size of whole entire universe, 94 billion light years.
In an optimistic way, there can be super-advanced civilizations that are observing us since life started on our planet, but they can’t reach us yet because they are too far away from our solar system. Because as we know from the astronomical knowledge of ours, if they look from a space telescope from that distance exactly right now, they would see the first moments of the world. Because the light can’t travel that fast to see the exact same time as we experience and they experience just now, that is how time works in our universe. For example, scientist are using super advanced space telescopes trying to observe the first lights of the universe. But even in that situation, they can’t go further than looking at the first 300 million years of the observable universe.
To summarize, the furthest place people have achieved to go is just 1.3 light seconds, but there is a entire space that has a lenght of 94 billion light years waiting to be explored, so how can we not say there is a possibility that we may not be alone at all. Who knows maybe a community of intelligent lives trying to contact with us for good reason, or they are just trying to conquer our planet to use our resources. On both possibility, we should consider that there might be civilizations in outer space, far away from our home.