this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
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[–] cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 19 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Canconda@lemmy.ca 4 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (2 children)

I think the closest we will come is detecting radio signals from another species. But like obviously 2 way communication would be almost impossible due to sheer distance.

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 3 points 10 hours ago

the closest we will come is detecting radio signals

But we are talking about intergalactic here.

Radio is only lightspeed, and that is much too slow to cover such distances.

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Sadly the universe is filled with enough random radio radiation that its unlikely any coherent signal is going to travel more than a few light years. With our current technology there could be an identical version of earth around the nearest star and we probably couldn't detect it.

[–] Canconda@lemmy.ca 3 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

The signal isn't destroyed though. So one could argue that isolating it in the noise is doable with enough math.

Obviously the real limit is still distance since we'd need a radio dish like the size of earths orbit or something to pick up a signal weakened from many lightyears away.

[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Probably with virtual telescopes, smaller receivers arrayed throughout the entire solar system, like EHT but biiiiiiiigger

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 2 points 49 minutes ago (1 children)

Of course, astronomers find the Oort cloud and want to turn it into a telescope! Figures.

[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 2 points 7 minutes ago (1 children)

oooh, such a cool idea. I imagined the array in orbit around other planets' Lagrange points but scattering them in the Oort cloud is way excitinger

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 1 points 3 minutes ago