Humans have never left the Milky Way. Therefore, it is really difficult to know if life truly exists beyond our galaxy. However, if humans were to become interstellar travelers (even if traveling at relatively slow speeds), we would be able to have humans all around the Milky Way in just a few million years! Though this seems like an incredibly long amount of time, compared to the amount of time on the Cosmic Calendar, it is extremely minuscule.
However, this fact raises an interesting question: if our human civilization is capable of expanding outward throughout an entire galaxy within just a few million years, why do we not have evidence of other life out there? Well, scientists believe that, statistically, civilizations in our universe should be somewhat common. Therefore, using these facts, someone should have already created a civilization throughout their galaxy. WHAT?!? I find this fact totally crazy. However, we have no signs of one. This fact is called Fermi’s Paradox.
When brainstorming possible solutions to this paradox, physicist Enrico Fermi came up with many possible solutions, including these three:
- We are the first and only galactic civilization in the universe
- There are other civilizations in the universe, but none of them have colonized an entire galaxy
- There is a galactic civilization, but they have not revealed themselves to us
Though we do not know right now which of these possibilities is the actual answer to Fermi’s Paradox, finding out the answer will be absolutely groundbreaking. Which possibility do you all think is the most likely…I am tempted to say #2.
Solar System Blog - Cameron Klein 
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