The closest star system, Alpha Centauri, is 4.3 light years far away from earth.
If their star ships travel at the same speed as ours they would take about 250.000 years to reach us
Even the chance to get in touch with aliens via radio signals is negligible
Assuming that they are at the same level of civilization as we are , we could expect to receive messages from star sytems in the range of, let say, 50 light years.
There are not so many star system so close to us
Evolutions entails a huge number of planets , thus it is pratically impossible that one of them ( the number is estimated in some thousand, no more ) can have intelliget beings( or even bacteria )
The only remote possibility is that these civilizations are much more advanced than us but moreover the physical laws should not be the same all over the universe
In practice the probabilities to have contacts with aliens are , despite the SETI program, null.

Last edited by AlbertoT; 05/16/08 18:55.