Are we alone in the universe? It's a question that's boggled boffins for years but we could soon have an answer, according to experts.
First contact would be a historic moment for mankind, trumping the moon landing or Elon's latest rocket launch, and could put an end to years of debate.
And that answer could be sooner than you might think, as a new study by the team at the University of California looked into whether intelligent extraterrestrial life could have responded to signals sent from Earth into deep space.
Experts analysed the signals to see if they could have reached their target, and then they deduced that if they had - we could get a reply as soon as 2029.
Do you think there's alien life out there? Let us know in the comments...
Howard Isaacson, from the University of California, spoke to PopSci and said: "This is a famous idea from Carl Sagan, who used it as a plot theme in the movie Contact."
Publishing their results in the paper titled 'The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: Nearby Stars' Close Encounters with the Brightest Earth Transmissions', the researchers explained their process.
They analysed signals sent from Earth to Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11 and New Horizons probes, and scientists said that life on nearby planets could have intercepted the transmission.
They found that some of the signals would have already reached their destination, and more will be arriving in the coming years.
"These spacecraft have communicated with the Deep Station Network (DSN) radio antennas in order to download scientific data and telemetry data," read the study.
However, due to the enormous distances of space, it will take a while to get a reply - so it might be hard to get a conversation going.
Meanwhile, a former US Navy fighter pilot has spoken out about UFOs and said he saw them "pretty much daily" while he was on duty.
Lt Ryan Graves spoke out and shared his experiences with squadron VFA-11 - known as the Red Rippers - saying that whenever they went up in the air, they'd come into contact with something unexpected.
He said there would be flashing lights, strange crafts, and other things he couldn't explain - and in the end they were chalked up as UAPs, another name for UFOs.
Ryan said such occurrences happened "pretty much daily", after his first experience when he was on a training mission off the cost of Virginia, USA.
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