Editorial Board
Don’t Believe in Aliens? Maybe You’re the Crazy One
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“Where is everybody?” Enrico Fermi famously asked 63 years ago. His question was cosmic: Our modest little eight-planet solar system is part of the Milky Way, which has at least 100 billion stars. The Milky Way, in turn, is one galaxy among 100 billion or more. The math suggests we should have seen signs of other civilizations by now.
What’s more, according to a study published this week, billions of those planets are potentially amenable to life as we know it. The nearest one could be just 12 light-years away.