Aliens Might Already Be Watching Us

Aliens Might Already Be Watching Us

Tess Joosse 

A new star map reveals more than 2,000 stars, some with their own planets, that have a direct view of our planetary presence

On June 25 the Pentagon and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released their much hyped report on unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAP. Space alien enthusiasts and skeptics alike awaited it with bated breath. And while the report did not rule out an extraterrestrial origin for much of the documented UAP, it was short on details or bombshells.

But we already know our world is easily detectable by extrasolar observers. A paper published on June 23 in Nature shows that in the past 5,000 years, 1,715 stars have been in the right celestial position to view a populated Earth transiting the sun—with 319 more entering this sweet spot in the next 5,000 years. And seven of these far-off stars are known to have their own orbiting exoplanets that might support life.

“Instead of constantly saying, ‘What can we detect from other worlds?’ and ‘Where are the other worlds that we can detect?’ think about it the other way,” says Jackie Faherty, an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and a co-author of the new study. “What worlds can find us? How many of them and for how long?”