For decades, science fiction writers have tried their best to prepare us for eventual contact with aliens. Their efforts are ...

“Hollywood has preconditioned us to expect one of two types of alien contact, either a hostile invasion force or a benevolent ...

The first unmistakable signal from another intelligence would rank alongside fire and writing in the story of our species, ...

Scientists suggest the first alien signal we detect could be a desperate cry for help from a fading civilization.

Some scientific breakthroughs may be lost to time due to scandal and redaction, while others are simply a case of waiting for ...

In this scenario, our first contact with aliens would be tragic. We should look for "loud shouts in the night".

It’s one of the most popular themes in science fiction—top secret government experts are ready to spring into action if a UFO appears. For example, in the novella-based 2016 film Arrival, the ...

In 1995, a pair of scientists discovered a planet outside our solar system orbiting a solar-type star. Since that finding—which won the scientists a portion of the 2019 Nobel Prize in ...

The Drake Equation helps scientists estimate the odds of finding intelligent alien civilizations. It’s an age-old question: Do aliens exist? And what are the odds we’ll make contact? A famous ...

Hunting for alien civilizations isn't a matter of just waiting around for them to show up; it's the business of combing through enormous volumes of data to look for peculiar signals. When you purchase ...

The Fermi Paradox ponders an endlessly fascinating question: If so many worlds exist in the universe, why haven’t we detected any sign of extraterrestrial life? A possible reason, called the ...