These galaxies were found to be emitting 'unusually high' levels of radiation - possibly indicating 'the presence of a highly advanced civilisation.' Last year, scientists said they had found 50 galaxies that may contain intelligent alien races. Within these galaxies, the researchers said it was possible that an alien race could be harnessing the power of the stars - emitting huge amounts of noticeable heat in the process. The study was led by Dr Jason Wright from the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds at Penn State University in Pennsylvania. The Glimpsing Heat from Alien Technologies Survey (G-Hat), published in the Astrophysical Journal, details how the team thought they might see the infrared signature of a race far more advanced than ours. 'The idea behind our research is that, if an entire galaxy had been colonised by an advanced spacefaring civilisation, the energy produced by that civilisation's technologies would be detectable in mid-infrared wavelengths,' said Dr Wright. Rather than guessing at the odds of advanced life developing, they calculate the odds against it occurring in order for humanity to be the only advanced civilization. With that, Frank and Sullivan then calculated the line between a universe where humanity has been the sole experiment in civilization and one where others have come before us. 'Of course, we have no idea how likely it is that an intelligent technological species will evolve on a given habitable planet,' says Frank. If the actual probability is greater than the pessimism line, then a technological species and civilization has likely happened before.' 'But using our method we can tell exactly how low that probability would have to be for us to be the only civilization the universe has produced.
Using this approach, Frank and Sullivan calculate how unlikely advanced life must be if there has never been another example among the universe's ten billion trillion stars, or even among our own Milky Way galaxy's hundred billion. 'One in 10 billion trillion is incredibly small,' says Frank.
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