Milky Way could be full of dead alien civilizations

A new study published using an expanded version of the famous Drake Equation, which determines the odds of extraterrestrial intelligence existing in our Milky Way suggested that our galaxy could be home to alien civilizations, although there is a strong possibility that most of them are already dead.

The study was conducted by researchers from California Institute of Technology, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Santiago High School.

They looked at various factors that could presumably lead to a habitable environment, and determined intelligent life may have emerged in our galaxy about 8 billion years after it was formed.

Yet to be peer-reviewed, the study also considers the factors that could have ended these civilizations such as exposure to radiation, a halt in evolution, and the tendency for intelligent life to self-annihilate, whether it be through climate change, technological advancements or war.

This suggests that any alien civilizations that are still alive are most likely young, as self-annihilation typically occurs after a long period.

“While no evidence explicitly suggests that intelligent life will eventually annihilate themselves, we cannot a priori preclude the possibility of self-annihilation,” the study reads.