Earth’s closest alien life probably isn’t very advanced, says new study

The sheer scale of the universe strongly suggests Earth isn’t its only life-hosting planet. But do distant worlds harbor the types of advanced spacefaring civilizations depicted in science fiction, or just far simpler microbes? Astrobiologists consider a planet’s age when searching for extraterrestrials. The standard logic implies that older planets had a longer time to develop advanced lifeforms. But while Earth is billions of years younger than many nearby exoplanets, one rese