Despite numerous searches for extraterrestrial life, it has never been discovered. Now an astronomer has come up with a theory to explain its absence: alien civilizations could have been wiped out by gamma-ray bursts.
Gamma ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe, releasing enormous amounts of energy. Astronomy professor Frederick Walter of Stony Brook University in New York believes these explosions could have destroyed alien civilizations in their own galaxies.
“It’s a tightly focused beam,” Walter said DailyMail.com. “And if it is passed through the plane of the Milky Way, it can actually sterilize about 10 percent of the planets in the Milky Way.”
Although gamma-ray bursts are rare in our Milky Way Galaxy, they are more common in young, distant galaxies. Walter believes that a gamma-ray burst occurs in every galaxy about every 100 million years, which could destroy many civilizations.
“It’s a rather morbid thought,” Walter said. “But this is a possible explanation why we haven’t found extraterrestrial life yet.”
Walter’s theory is based on decades of research conducted by NASA’s Compton Gamma-ray Observatory. The satellite was launched in 1991 to search for gamma-ray bursts in our Milky Way.
NASA scientists expected more gamma-ray bursts to come from our galactic disk. However, they found that these events are much more common in young, distant galaxies.
Walter’s theory suggests that if alien civilizations exist, they could be destroyed by powerful gamma-ray bursts.
This is just one of the possible theories explaining the lack of contact with alien civilizations.
