The good news is, there definitely are technologically advanced alien civilizations (plural) somewhere out there. The bad news is, first contact with them might occur about 1,500 years from now.

At least, SETI will have been a rightful success. But not the iconic TV and movie franchise Star Trek, which began boldly going to where no man has gone before in the 2260s.

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A new equation from two Cornell University researchers calculated this dismaying possibility based on the Fermi Paradox and the Mediocrity Principle. Combining these two equations led to the conclusion first contact might take another 1,500 years because this is about the time our radio transmissions saying "Hello" to aliens will have reached half the stars in the Milky Way.

Scientists, specifically the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), have been broadcasting radio signals into space traveling at the speed of light for the past 80 years. This persistence means every star within an 80 light year distance from the Earth has received a radio transmission from us.

These broadcasts, however, have reached only 8,531 stars and 3,555 Earth-like exoplanets in the Milky Way with its 200 billion stars. On the other hand, NASA's Kepler mission is even more pessimistic. It estimates our signals have reached just 2,326 confirmed exoplanets.

This conflicting data shows SETI still has a very, very long way to go. Perhaps 1,500 years to go.

"We haven't heard from aliens yet, as space is a big place -- but that doesn't mean no one is out there," said Cornell University student Evan Solomonides.

"Even our mundane, typical spiral galaxy -- not exceptionally large compared to other galaxies -- is vast beyond imagination."

"This is not to say that we must be reached by then or else we are, in fact, alone. We simply claim that it is somewhat unlikely that we will not hear anything before that time."

The Fermi Paradox says there are billions of stars in the Milky Way that probably have Earth-like exoplanets. Despite this probability, no advanced aliens have visited or contacted us.

The Mediocrity Principle states that since life exists on Earth, humans aren't unique. There must, therefore, be intelligent life on other Earth-like exoplanets.

TagsStar Trek, SETI, Cornell University, Fermi Paradox, Mediocrity Principle, aliens, Evan Solomonides, alien civilizations