A group of scientists at the University of Nottingham claims there could be intelligent life beyond planet Earth within our galaxy as per Forbes. It’s possible that at least 36 ongoing intelligent civilizations exist in the Milky Way Galaxy, all based on a “cosmic evolution” calculation/estimation.

The studies have been published in The Astrophysical Journal where it outlines that Extra-Terrestrial communications are happening, as well as that life on other planets is possible. One assumption exists, and that is that it takes about five billion years for intelligent life to form on other planets. Perspectively, the birth of a technological civilization that happened on Earth took 4.5 billion years of evolution, and will according to assumptions last at least 100 years.

With detection and communication pretty much impossible, as the average distance to one of these civilizations is about 17,000 light-years, the number of 36 Earth-like planets in their habitable zones is heavily relying on many assumptions, that it could be there are much more than 36, or it could also be possible that it’s zero.

Christopher Conselice, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Nottingham, stated: “Searches for extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations not only reveals the existence of how life itself forms, but also gives us clues about how long our own civilization will last. If we find that intelligent life is common then this would reveal that our civilization could exist for much longer than a few hundred years.”