SpaceX’s Starlink Satellites May Be the Reason Aliens Find Out Humans Exist
It may take 800 years, but SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation may be the ticket for aliens to finally see us.
SpaceX may be doing more than shooting Starlink satellites into orbit and prodiving internet to humans on Earth, it may also enable aliens to see us.
According to a new study that’s been accepted for publication in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, we humans on Earth are currently invisible to any potential alien life out in space.
However, with more and more technology floating and flying around us thanks to space companies like SpaceX, we may finally become visible to them.
It won’t be a fast change, though, as the paper points out it’ll most likely take 800 years before this happens. But it looks like Starlink will be the one to uncover us if it keeps sending satellites up above us at its current rate.
What are SpaceX’s Starlink satellites?
Elon Musk’s Starlink mission is to send internet-beaming satellites to orbit so that remote places on Earth are able to use high-speed internet.
In one launch, SpaceX typically sends 60 Starlink satellites into orbit. As Forbes points out, there are now 1,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, and the space company’s plan is to have around 12,000 of them in orbit by 2030, with the possibility of some 40,000 down the line.
Having this many satellites above us earthlings creates what’s being called the first “techno-signature.” This techno-signature is what could enable aliens to realize humans live on Earth, allowing us to be visible from deep in space.
So it looks like the Starlink mission will do more than just provide internet for hard-to-reach areas on our planet; it’ll also allow other forms of life deep in space to know of our existence. Although, with 800 years ahead of us before this happens, we’ve got some time to think of ways to greet them.
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