{"id":244714,"date":"2026-10-01T01:34:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T06:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/could-advanced-aliens-be-living-nearby-scientists-say-its-unlikely"},"modified":"2026-10-01T01:34:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T06:34:06","slug":"could-advanced-aliens-be-living-nearby-scientists-say-its-unlikely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/could-advanced-aliens-be-living-nearby-scientists-say-its-unlikely","title":{"rendered":"Could Advanced Aliens Be Living Nearby? Scientists Say It\u2019s Unlikely"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/could-advanced-aliens-be-living-nearby-scientists-say-its-unlikely3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Even planets billions of years older than Earth may host only microbes if photosynthesis supplies too little energy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Science fiction often imagines Earth\u2019s galactic neighborhood teeming with hyper-advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, but the actual cosmos near us may be far quieter.<\/p>\n<p>A study published in the <em><i>International Journal of Astrobiology<\/i><\/em>, led by Chris Doughty, a professor of ecoinformatics at Northern Arizona University, proposes that the evolution of complex life on exoplanets depends heavily on cumulative plant energy rather than just the passage of time. Although many of the planets orbiting Earth\u2019s stellar neighbors are several billion years older than our world, worse conditions for cumulative photosynthesis mean life on those planets likely evolved much more slowly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even planets billions of years older than Earth may host only microbes if photosynthesis supplies too little energy. Science fiction often imagines Earth\u2019s galactic neighborhood teeming with hyper-advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, but the actual cosmos near us may be far quieter. A study published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, led by Chris Doughty, a professor [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1527,385],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alien-life","category-evolution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}