No near neighbors: Closest technologically advanced aliens may be 33,000 light-years from Earth

An illustration of exoplanet Kepler 16b, where its brown rocky surface can be seen in the darkness of space with its bright home star far in the distance.

A new study argues that conditions necessary for intelligent extraterrestrial life may be far less common than once thought.

Planets lacking plate tectonics and sufficient carbon dioxide and oxygen could make advanced civilizations like ours extremely rare, Manuel Scherf and Helmut Lammer of the Austrian Academy of Sciences suggested during a presentation at the Europlanet Science Congress and the Division for Planetary Science (EPSC-DPS) in Helsinki earlier this month.